A Dragon's Choice
by digemsmack
Summary: One's life could easily be summed up by all of the choices that they've made so far. From decisions as mundane as what they were going to wear that day, to choices that could mean life or death for the ones that they care about. This is the tale about Natsu's split second decision that would change his life in ways he could have never dreamed of. Disclaimer I do not own Fairy Tail
1. A Decision of Life or Death

Ch 1: A decision of Life or Death

If you asked anyone in Fiore about their opinion of Natsu Dragneel, or what he's more widely known as the Salamander, you would hear a lot of different responses depending on who you asked. For a large group of mages the first way they would describe the dragon slayer is as a trusted ally that they could always rely on having their backs in even the worst circumstances imaginable. If you asked those that are really close to the dragon slayer you might hear words like: inspirational, brave, foolhardy, courageous, idiotic or simply enjoyable.

Now if you somehow were able to talk to the enemies of Natsu Dragneel, you would definitely not get as positive of a description. But if you shifted through the curses and other colorful language you would find more than a few things that each of them thought about the dragon slayer. And that would be that he doesn't understand the concept of giving up or staying down when he's already at death's doorstep. Along with that they would also describe him as a monster or demon when pushed too far or when his friends are in danger. One that made it his purpose to give back whatever pain you bestowed upon his friends by ten folds.

Even with all of these things said about the famous dragon slayer there is one thing that pretty much no one would say about him. And that would be describing him as someone who thinks things out or even thinks about how his actions might cause him problems later on down the line. The main reason for this was due to him being a man of action, and he was completely fine with dealing with the consequences of his actions later on if it meant that he could stop something bad from happening right then and there.

And it was because of that fact that Natsu found himself in an unimaginable situation right now, where he even actually started to think about what he just did and how it might change his whole life. Well part of the reason for him to be thinking like that right now could easily be attributed to him being the only person conscious right now as he slowly walked down a hallway littered with unconscious bodies scattered every which way. His attire was a complete wreck, with the only thing that survived from his usual outfit being his pants but only just barely.

Now you are probably wondering where in the world is his scarf, the only other thing as famous as his pink hair, which he is never seen without it being in his possession. Well it was still within his grasp but it was currently being used by someone that definitely needed it more than him at the moment. And that brings us to the rest of his appearance, which made him look like he had been fighting for his life for the last few hours if you went by all of the wounds that covered him. But what someone would notice before all of this was definitely the two feminine forms that he had slung over his shoulders or the lump of blue fur sticking out of his pink mop.

All of his passengers looking as if they too had just gone through the same hell that he had just traversed through, which might explain the prominent scowl being displayed on his mug. Due to the poor lighting and how he was carrying the two ladies it was almost impossible to distinguish who they might be. But considering how upset Natsu looked it was a safe bet to make that they were people that he cared for deeply as he finally exited the hallway into a room that had its front blown off. The additional light of the setting sun just allowed the hair color of the two women to be seen, one a golden blonde with the other having pink hair just like the man carrying them.

 **Six hours earlier in the nearest town:**

"Is that it?" asked Natsu in a dull tone while draped across a chair, clearly bored out of his mind right now.

"Natsu!" hissed Lucy as she glared at her partner for not maintaining a professional manner while talking with their client.

"It's fine Ms. Heartfilia, one does not ask for the Salamander specifically without expecting to receive the whole package. That just so happens to include him losing interest if the conversation lasts longer than an hour like ours just did." replied the Mayor with a little smirk as he looked at Natsu. Who was still lounging about with a bored look on his face as he was now looking out the window at something.

"True, but he wouldn't be acting like this if Erza was with us." she replied with a little grin. Because just the mention of the scarlet haired knight got Natsu sitting in his chair upright and staring intently at the Mayor, who he thought looked like a younger version of Makarov.

Of course this complete one eighty twist on Natsu's part caused the Mayor to start chuckling along with Lucy at him. That only stopped after the dragon slayer figured out that she wasn't there and let out a little growl that signaled for the two that he was done with their snickering at him.

"Well to answer your first question Salamander, yes that is indeed all there is to tell you about the dark guild." stated the Mayor with a smile, having a really good feeling this time. Confident that these two would be able to handle the dark guild unlike the last three groups before them, who didn't have anyone near as famous as Salamander on their team.

"Then what in the world are we sitting around this boring place for Luce?" asked Natsu as he shoot up out of his chair.

"Aye Sir!" cheered Happy as he sprung out of Lucy's hold on him. And before Lucy or the Mayor could even say another word the two leapt out of the open window, without a second thought in their heads as they disappeared out of sight.

"Oh my, they do realize that we're on the third floor?" asked the Mayor as he turned to Lucy with a concerned look.

All she could do was sheepishly smile back to him and respond with an honest answer. "Probably not." she replied only for a loud holler to cut her off as the other two shot past the window again but heading up even higher.

"And as you can see they're now just having some fun before the job. So I guess I better get out there and remind them that we have a job to do." said Lucy with a large smile spread across her face as she did a quick bow and then headed towards the door.

"Ms. Heartfilia, please be careful. This guild has already defeated three other groups before you with a few of them actually dying in the process." he said with a guilty look on his face. That then slowly became one of hopeful optimism at the sight of Lucy and her determined look.

"Don't worry Mr. Mayor, we're Fairy Tail mages after all and that means we won't stop until the job is done." she replied with a small smile before exiting through the door.

"I just hope you're right about that Ms. Heartfilia." he stated before going back to his paperwork.

 **Two hours later in the middle of a swamp:**

"Now why exactly am I carrying the both of you?" asked Natsu while carrying Lucy on his back with Happy sprawled on top of his head.

"Because a real gentleman wouldn't make a woman walk through a disgusting place like this." she stated with a cheesy grin.

"And I always ride on your head!" replied Happy with his usual smile.

"Well it's going to stop as soon as we reach their guild hall." he mumbled with a slight scowl as the two riding him continued to enjoy themselves. That is until their ride suddenly came to a stop and tensed up as he started to sniff the air while scanning the area in front of them.

"Natsu what's wrong?" asked Lucy with a concerned look, as his attention seemed to lock onto something she couldn't see. But the next thing she knew she was tossed in the air screaming for her dear life as she came hurtling at a large tree only to veer out of the way and soar even higher.

"I got you Lucy!" said the blue Exceed now holding onto her shoulders as he started to maneuver them in between the trees. With shocking skill the blue Exceed dodged all of the branches and the incoming spells being thrown at the two of them.

"We need to go help Natsu!" she shouted as a large explosion went off from where they were before she was thrown into the air with no warning.

"He'll be fine, the best thing we can do is stay out of his way." Happy replied as he dove underneath a large branch that exploded only a second later from an unknown spell.

"You're right, but we can't let him do all of the work." she declared with a now stern look on her face, which was surprisingly also on Happy's face as well.

"Aye Sir!" shouted the Exceed as he launched high into the sky. Both of them now a few feet above the canopy of trees that grew out from the swamp blow them.

 **"OPEN GATE OF THE ARCHER: SAGITTARIUS!"** shouted Lucy as she swiped a golden key through the air.

A man in a horse costume appeared and without a second of hesitation he let loose his arrows down on the area underneath them. He only did this to figure out where his real targets were, which worked as the spirit planned and he then proceeded to take out five mages that revealed their locations because of his earlier volley. The remarkable part about all of this was that the archer was able to do all of this in the time before he would have hit the ground, which didn't happen due to his gate being closed right before he possibly could have hurt himself with his landing.

 **"OPEN GATE OF THE LION: LEO!"** she shouted as Happy gently dropped her in the area that Sagittarius had just cleared for them.

 **"OPEN GATE OF THE BULL: TAURUS!"** she continued as the two spirits appeared to the sides of her. The one on her right being a large half man and bull with a large axe in hand and the remaining one on her left was a handsome orange haired man with glasses and in a nice suit.

"You're looking quite beautiful today Lucy." said Taurus as he leered at his celestial mage.

"Taurus we can bask in our Princess's radiant glow once no one is trying to hurt her." said Loke now a few yards ahead of them and hitting two different dark mages before they could even register what was happening.

"Moo! Nobody will get to harm my beautiful Lucy while I'm here!" bellowed Taurus with an enraged expression as he charged an unfortunate dark mage that thought this might be a good opportunity to reveal their location. It definitely wasn't since the next thing that they knew they were slammed through a few trees with an enraged spirit still coming after them.

"I'm not either of yours!" shouted Lucy as she pulled out her whip and chased after her two spirits with a snickering Happy flying over her shoulder. Knowing that Natsu expected him to keep an eye out for her and make sure nothing bad happens while the dragon slayer wasn't there to protect her.

 **With Natsu right after throwing Lucy and Happy into the air:**

The next thing that he knew it just felt as if he was hit by a train in the chest as he was launched back and tumbled through the air and hitting a few trees in the process. But just as he was about to hit another one he corrected his course and instead used it as a springboard to jump towards a different one. And just like that he was jumping from tree to tree making his way back towards his sudden assailant, but said assailant wasn't just standing around for the dragon slayer.

Far from it, because the next thing Natsu realized was that there was a large concentration of water barreling towards him as he just landed on a new tree. So the next few moments consisted of him jumping from tree to tree, only for the tree to be smashed to bits milliseconds after he jumped off of it.

"Screw this, **FIRE DRAGON'S BRILLIANT FLAME!** " shouted Natsu as he brought both of his flaming hands together. Resulting in a large explosion of fire that wiped out most of the swamp in a large area underneath him as he gracefully fell into it. As it cleared he was pleased to hear a few pain filled moans coming from a few directions around him, so with a grin he took off to make sure that they would all be knocked out for good.

 **"FIRE DRAGON'S IRON FIST!"** could just barely be heard before smaller explosion would go off. The process happened a good ten more times, now leaving a fairly smug dragon slayer dusting off his hands as he scanned the area for his two partners.

"Quite impressive Salamander." said a blue haired man as he rose out of the swamp with a smug smirk spread across his lips. Just from his appearance alone Natsu could tell that he was a member of the dark guild and shouldn't be taken lightly if he expected to make it out of this alive. The man actually didn't have much clothing to speak of, which reminded the dragon slayer of someone that had a weird stripping habit. He wore dark gray pants that were tucked into his black boots, with the only other clothing being his fingerless gloves that went halfway down his forearm.

"I should be the one saying that since my last move seemed to have no effect on you." said Natsu as he inspected the man before him that emerged from the swampy waters just seconds ago.

"Why thanks, it just goes to show you that you have no chance against me." he replied only to twist out of the way of a fire ball sent at his head.

"This is going to be more entertaining than I originally thought." he said now dodging and countering the savage attacks being thrown at him by Natsu.

"I was going to say the same thing." said the dragon slayer once again sporting that grin he got when fighting an opponent for the first time. He knew that even if he was way stronger than his enemy, all it took was one stupid move and they could easily turn the tables on him.

This caused the blue haired mage's expression to become one of someone who was really amused as he stopped dodging. But rather than Natsu's fist connecting with something solid like the dragon slayer expected he swung clean through the man causing a little bit of steam to shoot out. Before he could get his head wrapped around what just happened he was slugged in the back of the head and sent flying into a nearby tree.

"See what I was talking about Salamander, you don't have a chance when I can turn my body into water. Now all of your attacks are completely useless, while mine on the other hand still can lay you out." taunted the dark mage as he then broke into laughter. That was then cut short by a barrage of fiery attacks forcing him to start dodging again or going into his water form.

"I'll be the judge of that." shouted Natsu as he continued his assault on the water mage that easily rivaled Juvia in skill. He was planning to never let the water mage go on the offense, while he tried to come up with a way to turn this around, but that was definitely going to be easier said than done.

 **Two hours later:**

"Are you even human?" asked the blue haired water mage, now panting and leaning up against a tree. Across from him was a slightly out of breath Natsu, who also looked like he was on the receiving end of an extreme beating since his outfit was pretty torn up.

"Not completely, but that's thanks to the magic I use." he replied with a smirk. While inwardly having a panic attack since he hasn't heard or seen either of his partners since he threw them into the air at the beginning of all of this. Now usually this wouldn't have concerned him since he knew that they could take care of themselves. But after having to deal with the occasional appearance of another dark mage ever now and then it started to worry him.

"Well I guess that means it's a draw Salamander." stated the dark mage as he got off of the tree. While he on the other hand was now wondering where the hell was the rest of his guild, since two hours should have been more than enough to deal with those other two weaklings as he handled Salamander with the occasional assistance from a random member.

"I wouldn't say that, I think I've finally figured out how to deal with that water form of yours." stated Natsu as he was now completely covered in flames. But rather than being directed into an attack like he would normal do, he had them form a large pillar around him that was evaporating the surrounding water at a startling rate.

"Do you really think that's actually going to work?" he asked with a confident smirk, hoping that it would be enough to fool the dragon slayer before him. But the growing smirk on his opponent's face quickly dashed that hope to a million little pieces as he started to freak out.

"That I do, and judging by the scent of fear now in the air I think you do too." said Natsu still completely coated in fire as he slowly walked towards the now terrified dark mage in front of him.

"But I do have a quick question before we test this theory of mine out. What happens if I evaporate all the water that used to make up your arm for example, can you replace it with different water? Or will you become a one armed mage? Actually after what I have planned for you it would be a lot better than a no-armed man." he finished with a deadly smirk, something that the other mage took notice of and didn't like one bit at all and didn't plan to find out if Natsu was serious about that threat.

"Hold on a moment Salamander, I don't really know since no one has ever tried it. But I'd like to point out that if it does work like that, then you could accidentally kill me if you aren't careful." he answered, hoping that this would stop him from even attempting it. Since he, along with the rest of the wizarding world, knew that Fairy Tail mages didn't kill under any circumstances.

"I thought of that, but then I realized it doesn't really matter since I would just evaporate the rest of you if you let me get a critical hit on you." answered Natsu as he continued to get closer.

"You're just bluffing!" he shouted back, now freaking out since the dragon slayer didn't really look like he was joking in the slightest.

"Does it look like I am?" Natsu asked back, now only a few feet away.

"What would the rest of your guild think about you killing someone?" he asked, thinking that this might cause the man staring him down right now to have second thoughts.

"The same as they always have since it would just be our little secret, and I have a feeling that you won't be telling them anything." replied Natsu as a look of horror came over the water mage's face. **"FIRE DRAGON'S IRON FIST!"** he shouted as he concentrated all of his flames into a punch directed at the man's head. But unlike all of the other times he attacked like this, this time his fist made contact with the man's head which resulted with him instantly being knocked out and sent soaring through the sky.

"Had a feeling that you'd be too scared to find out." he said with a little chuckle.

"Oh crap, I need to find Lucy and Happy!" he shouted out to no one in particular as he took off in the direction that their scent was coming from.

 **With Lucy and Happy:**

"HAPPY!" screamed out Lucy as the little Exceed was blasted into a wall and fell to the floor knocked out.

"Finally got rid of that annoying pest." said a woman in a black miniskirt and tube top that had a crazed glint in her eyes. If Lucy had to make a comparison of her to someone in Fairy Tail it would have to be Mira, but not the current one that everyone has come to see as a motherly figure. No the girl in front of her right now was what apparently Mirajane used to be like when she got the title of The Demon of Fairy Tail. The girl even had white hair like Mira, but that and her current outfit is where the similarities stopped for the two.

"Lucy, I don't know how much longer I can remain here with you." stated Capricorn with a frown, since he was already using most of his own energy to stay there. Just like most of the spirits before him did while fighting with Lucy, all of them realizing right away that this was definitely going to be one of their hardest battles yet.

This comment of Capricorn snapped Lucy out of her shock and made her come to the realization that she still had a fight to win. It also let her realize that Happy was lucky to not be hit by one of the woman's blades that she could control from great distances as if she was still holding them.

"How much longer do you think we have?" she asked as she looked at the battered form of her spirit. She was surprised that he was actually still able to remain here with her after sustaining so much damage over the last few minutes fighting along with her.

"Probably five more minutes if I don't take any more hits." he replied while narrowly dodging two daggers that flew past him. Only for them to turn back and keep coming at him, each time getting closer and closer to landing a devastating hit on him.

"Did you really think I would just sit back and let the two of you chat like that?" asked the white haired woman with an amused smirk as she twirled a fancy dagger in one of her hands.

"You don't need to answer that since I don't want to wear you out any more than I already have. Right now if I had to guess it would be that you barely have any magic left in you blondie." she continued as a look of panic flashed over Lucy.

"I have more than enough to deal with someone like you!" shouted Lucy as she lashed her whip at her opponent. Who spun out of the way while letting out a little amused giggle, which she kept doing as she continued to dodge all of Lucy's attacks. She was even able to dodge the rare attack thrown at her from Capricorn, who was having a lot of trouble dealing with her other two daggers.

This game of cat and mouse continued on for a few more minutes, until Capricorn finally dissolved back into the spirit realm after taking a dagger to the back. But before he completely dissolved, the spirit was able to whisper a sorry to his Master and a goodbye along with a sad sorry.

"Are you sure about being able to handle me little girl?" she asked while looking at the now panting Lucy who was clearly too drained to summon another spirit.

"I'm probably older than you!" screamed out Lucy with a disgruntled look.

"Does it really matter who's older between the two of us since I'm soon going to be killing you?" she asked still twirling that weird dagger of hers, now also having her other two spinning above each of her shoulders.

"Yes it does, because I'm not going to die here today! And I'm sick and tired of everyone thinking I'm some young and stupid blonde that can't take care of herself!" declared Lucy before once again attacking with her whip. But to her shock rather than dodging like her opponent did every time before, this time she just held up her arm and let it wrap around it as she smiled back at the celestial mage.

The next thing Lucy knew she was tossed across the already completely destroyed room and slammed into one of the few remaining pillars. But as she let out a pain filled scream she realized that this was only the start, because she was now being sent across the room and into a stone wall. Where she finally let go of her whip and fell to the floor, now in some of the worst pain she had ever been in so far.

"Oh we're not done yet little Missy." laughed the dark mage as Lucy's eyes widened in surprise at all of the random junk now floating around the woman. But before she could even ask or come up with an explanation said objects came hurtling at her and pushing the poor blonde up against the wall. Where she remained as she was continued to be assaulted until she was barely able to remain conscious.

"Is that all you have, from what I heard you were supposed to be one of the last Celestial mages out there? Not only that but you are also supposed to be the strongest, who can do things that shouldn't be possible." she asked with an amused smile as she looked down at the beaten girl in front of her. Not taking notice of the explosions that have progressively gotten closer with every passing second, something that Lucy surprisingly did which brought a small smile to her face.

So with a pain filled smile Lucy got back into a sitting position and looked directly into the other woman's eyes. "You're forgetting about my other partner, so if you hope to make it out of here in one piece I suggest running while you still have the chance." said Lucy still smiling up at her enemy.

"Oh I haven't forgotten about Salamander at all, which is why we sent our strongest water mage to deal with him." she replied with a confident smile, but was confused when Lucy actually started to laugh at hearing that.

"Do you honestly think that a normal water mage can deal with a fire dragon slayer? If you do then you really don't know who you're messing with." responded Lucy before screaming out in pain as two knives sliced her and remained floating right in front of her.

"I'm done listening to a spoiled brat who doesn't even realize how hard it is out here on your own. And even if Salamander does win against our man he'll be dealt with before he even makes it half way here. Now let's see if I can get you to do something extraordinary?" she asked before starting to slowly cut the blonde again, but this time taking notice of an ungodly roar and the large explosions that followed it.

"You really should have listened to me when you had the chance." stated Lucy with a defiant smirk as the other woman started to back away from her as another round of explosions could be heard from not that far away.

"If you run right now I won't tell him that you actually started to torture me." she finished still smirking back at the clearly terrified woman.

But the next second the white haired lady's expression turned to one of someone who was ready to do something unthinkable. "I wonder how he'll react if he finds both of his partners dead? I bet he's the kind of man to breakdown and start crying his eyes out like a little baby, which will give me the perfect opportunity to end him as well." said the dark mage now with a crazed glint in her eyes as another explosion went off closer than the last ones.

"If you do that then there is no chance of you making it out of here alive." replied Lucy, now realizing that this could truly be the end for her. And all that did was make her think about was how lucky she was to become a member of Fairy Tail and become a member of their odd family.

"Well I'm willing to take that chance." she stated as her two daggers stopped spinning and were now pointing directly at Lucy.

"I'm sorry Natsu and everyone else, I really wanted to still go on more adventures with all of you." said Lucy as she closed her eyes with a few tears escaping. She expected to feel some sort of intense pain before it all came to an end, but instead of that happening she heard a shocked gasp and a distinct voice.

"I'm sorry." apologized Aries as she now stood in front of Lucy with a giant wool wall blocking them from their opponent.

"Aries, you just saved my life." replied Lucy before finally passing out due to all her injuries.

"So it's true, her spirits will actually come here on their own free will to protect her if they can." said the woman responsible for most of Lucy's wounds.

"Yes, but that's because she's the best master any of us could ever hope for." stated Aries in a shy tone as she remained in front of Lucy.

"Well it's a shame that you're going to have to get used to someone else after I sell all of you off." she stated with a little chuckle. **"WOOL SHOT!"** shouted out Aries in what must have been her angry voice, which would have been everyone else's normal yelling voice.

"I won't allow that!" declared Aries as she actually glared at the woman now slightly covered in her pink wool.

"That's what I was hoping you'd say." she replied as her one unique dagger was then sent flying straight at the two. **"WOOL WALL!"** shouted out the spirit, confident that it was a little overkill for just a single dagger but she wasn't going to take any chances when Lucy was completely knocked out.

So when she all of a sudden felt an immense pain shoot out from her stomach she was completely caught off guard. But what even shocked her more, was that once the dagger slowly came out of her it was accompanied with her own blood. This was something that shouldn't even be possible for a celestial spirit to experience while not in the Spirit Realm.

"You're confused aren't you?" asked the white haired dark mage, who was no longer covered in pink wool and was only a few steps away from Aries.

"Well I'm more than glad to help clear a few things up for you. You're probably wondering why you haven't been sent back to your realm after receiving such a serious injury." she continued with a wicked grin while starting to twirl the knife that was covered in the spirit's blood.

"This shouldn't be possible." stated Aries as she fell to her knees clutching her gut as more of her blood continued to slowly leak out of her.

"Well it is, but it's only happening because of you also doing something that was supposed to be impossible." she replied now slowly cleaning the blade.

"This blade is rumored to be capable of killing a spirit, but every time someone tried it on one of your kind. They would just go back to your spirit realm and heal, so it was then theorized that it could only kill a spirit if they remained here in our world. But that was even a harder thing to accomplish than killing one of you." she explained with joy, once again zoning out the explosions and sounds of fighting that were drawing nearer.

"But I should still be able to go back." replied Aries only to then let out another scream of pain after being cut again by the woman.

"You would be able to if your master over there was still awake. But now that she's out you're stuck here thanks to the blade also having a sealing spell on it designed to prevent a spirit from closing their gate by themselves. Something that I initially thought was stupid when I first heard it, but after I learned about your Master and her spirits actually coming here on their own I realized how important it was." she stated while making her way around the injured spirit, but was shocked when a hand reached out and grabbed her ankle.

"You stay away from her." grunted out Aries, slightly struggling with each word.

"Well aren't you the devoted spirit, which I shouldn't be too surprised about since you wouldn't be here if you weren't. I guess I'll just have to finish you off first." she said as she slowly slid the weird blade into the side of the spirit. But rather than her grip loosening like she expected, the spirit's hold on her ankle only increased and actually started to hurt the woman.

"Why you little bitch." she hissed out as she pulled the dagger out and was ready to plunge it back into the spirit. That is until she felt a magical presence on the other side of the wall, that shocked her at how angry it was and knowing that it was all directed at her. Before she could even think of what to do the wall exploded and standing in its place was a dark figure completely covered in orange flames glaring back at her with red eyes.

"Stand back or I'll kill her!" she shouted out, now finding it really hard to breathe.

"No you're going to drop that dagger this instant, otherwise you're never going to be able to use that hand of yours again." growled out Natsu as he slowly started to walk towards her.

"I wasn't joking Salamander!" she shouted out, knowing that it had to be him since it was the only possible explanation for what she was seeing right now. Honestly she didn't really believe someone like this could be a member of a light guild, because right now she was completely terrified at what he might was capable of doing to her.

"Neither was I." he hissed in her ear, now right behind her and holding her wrist. The next thing Aries knew the woman was screaming out in pain as the weird dagger fell to the floor, as Natsu was crushing her hand while also still having his own hand on fire.

"And now that I can see what you did to my friends and planned to do to them if I hadn't shown up I think it's only right for me to take your other hand as well." he growled out while doing the same thing to the woman's other hand, only causing her to scream out in more pain as she fell to her back. She clearly didn't know what to even do with her completely broken and burnt to a crisp hands, but Natsu didn't even give her the chance to try as he delivered a swift kick to her head that stopped her screaming thanks to her being rendered unconscious.

Aries was a little scared of the Natsu that was currently standing before her right now, but the very next second she was shocked to see all the fire disappear. And along with the fire so did his overall angry aura, which was replaced with his warm and welcoming one that most of his guild members have gotten used to feeling.

"Aries are you okay? And why are you bleeding, I thought that you usually just go back to the spirit realm when you're hurt?" he asked with a very concerned look on his face as he inspected her.

"I'm fine Natsu, please make sure Lucy is okay." said Aries in a weak yet also very concerned tone.

"She's fine for now, her wounds aren't nearly as bad as yours." he replied with a slightly grim look coming over his face as he looked at her injuries now that he was right in front of her.

"That's good to hear, can you please tell her I'm sorry and I was happy to have her as a master." she said with a sad smile while just barely being able to keep her eyes open. Something that Natsu instantly took notice of, which he knew was definitely not something good after all of the times that his friends made sure he didn't go to sleep after being severely injured in a fight.

"You can tell her yourself after you go back and get healed up." he stated with his usual grin, even though he really didn't like where this conversation was heading.

"Natsu can you please do something for me?" she asked while managing to look at him with both of her eyes wide open.

"Sure, but let me start patching you up since you aren't going back to the spirit realm for some reason." he replied as he ripped off what remained of his vest and tried to make a bandage out of it. But he soon realized that it wasn't going to wrap around her chest like he needed it to, which caused him to start frantically looking around for something that would.

"Will you look after Lucy and make sure to protect her better than I did." she asked with tears starting to form in her eyes. Knowing that she didn't even need to ask the dragon slayer this since she like every other spirit saw what he would do in order to protect Lucy. So the next words out of his mouth shocked her to her very core.

"No!" he practically shouted at her as he glared back at her, which he soon realized might have been a little too much. So he switched it to a determined look as he let out a long sigh and got ready to explain himself to the spirit.

"I won't promise you that because I'm going to make sure that you can keep doing that yourself Aries. And from what I can tell it's thanks to you that Lucy is even still alive right now, meaning that you've done a better job than me." he explained with a defeated look that was quickly hidden when his head dropped down so his bangs covered most of his view.

"Natsu I.." she started to say only to be cut off by him.

"Enough, you need to save your energy." he said in soft tone as he took off his scarf and started to use it to cover her wounds. As he did this he didn't notice her eyes slowly closing until they were completely shut, possibly to never open again.

"So Aries, would you care to tell me why you aren't fading away like you usually do?" asked Natsu with a small grin, that soon became a very concerned look after getting no response from her. "Aries?" he asked while gently moving her in hopes that she would wake back up again, but he got nothing back. So he then used his enhanced senses to make sure that she was still alive, which unfortunately told him that she wasn't going to remain that way for long.

"Why in the world are you not going back?" he shouted out in rage. As he looked back down he noticed the bloody dagger that was used on her, making him believe that it had something to do with it. So he quickly picked it up in both hands and summoned the hottest flames he could, resulting in the dagger melting into a small puddle on the floor.

But as he looked back at the spirit he came to the quick conclusion that doing that was not going to be enough on its own. But something from the back of his memories came rushing back to him right then, and it was from his time with Igneel and pertained to a subject that he never really cared about for most of his life.

 **Flashback:**

 _"_ _ **Natsu could you come here for a moment?**_ _" asked Igneel as he sat out in front of the cave that they called their home for the past few months._

 _"What is it Igneel, are you going to start teaching me some sort of super strong move?" asked a young Natsu as he started to bounce around in joy as he continued to ask questions before the dragon could even respond. Igneel could already tell that this was probably going to be pointless conversation for Natsu, but it was one that he needed to have with him._

 _ **"Quiet!"**_ _he shouted while smacking Natsu into the ground with his tail and keeping him pinned with it._

 _"Let me go you overgrown Lizard!" hollered Natsu as he struggled in vain to get out._

 _ **"No I won't be doing that my boy, because we need to talk about the mating rituals of Dragons."**_ _he stated and was slightly surprised that his pink haired son stopped struggling and looked slightly interested._

 _"But I'm not a dragon so why should I care if it doesn't involve fighting?" asked Natsu with a confused expression. That unfortunately Igneel was quite accustomed to seeing from him whenever he tried to teach the boy about something other than fighting or getting stronger._

 _ **"You aren't, which I know you are upset about."**_ _replied Ingeel with a smirk._

 _"Not yet anyways, but I'll figure out how to become one someday so I can be just like you." declared the little boy from underneath him, which caused the dragon to start chuckling at him._

 _ **"We'll see if you feel that way in a few years my boy, but back to dragon mating rituals and why you need to learn about them. Since you're a dragon slayer you also take on some of the other traits that we dragons have, and one of those is how we mate."**_ _he said as he looked at Natsu who was looking right back at him._

 _ **"Now the biggest thing that sets us apart from other species is that we mate for life, which can be a blessing or a curse depending on who turns out to be your mate. Now it could be a good thing since if your mate loves you back it will only become stronger as time passes. But if your mate doesn't share that love then there is unfortunately nothing for you to do but hope that someday they will share the same feelings for you."**_ _explained Igneel, a little proud that Natsu was actually listening to him._

 _"So how do I get a mate?" asked Natsu as he got into a sitting position since Igneel removed his tail from on top of him._

 _ **"There's two different ways Natsu, the first and most common way is for your inner dragon to pick one for you which usually ends up with the mate having the same feelings. The other way is less common since it's less likely to have the chosen mate returning those feelings back to you."**_ _he said now wondering if he should even be telling the boy about this. But after thinking about who he was talking to he realized that the boy was definitely too kind to most likely ever even considering doing the second way._

 _ **"Both of these ways require you to bite your mate somewhere on their body and releasing your magic into them, which will give them some of your magic and make them stronger**_ _." he finished with a long sigh._

 _"You just said that both ways I just have to bite them." stated Natsu with an extremely confused expression on his face, once again causing the dragon to start chuckling at him._

 _ **"That I did, the difference in the two ways is that the second one you are forcibly choosing who your mate is. While the first way pretty much tells you that there is definitely a chance for the two of you becoming strong mates, were the second option is completely in the air."**_ _he explained with a grin._

 _"Okay, I think I get it." shouted out Natsu as he threw a fist into the air._

 _ **"Well that'll be a first."**_ _remarked Igneel in an amused tone, which Natsu completely ignored or didn't even hear._

 _"I've just got one more question Igneel." he stated now looking up at the dragon with a huge grin._

 _ **"And what is that Natsu?"**_ _asked Igneel with a large grin of his own._

 _"What's a mate?" he asked while rubbing the back of his head with his grin turning into a sheepish one. The next second he was sent flying into the forest thanks to his slightly angry father._

 _ **"You didn't understand anything."**_ _grumbled the large red dragon as he went into the cave while continuing to complain about his idiotic son._

 **Back to the present:**

"Shit, would it even help in a situation like this?" he asked himself as he looked down at the motionless figure of Aries who looked worse with each passing second. But he then remembered all of the times that he was hurt similarly and only really needed some sleep before he was completely fine. All thanks to his enhanced healing that most people probably didn't even realize came with being a dragon slayer, something that he knew he would have died countless number of times before without it.

"Well I guess it doesn't hurt to at least give it a try." he said as he knelt down next to her, while telling the little voice in the back of his head that he would fine with not having a mate that loved him back. So long as it meant that Aries survived he would be able to deal with it, and if she didn't make it then at least he knew he tried absolutely everything he could to fix her.

"Here I go." he stated while gently lifting her up so he could bite down on her lower neck. Something that he knew would have definitely caused the spirit a lot of pain if she was awake right now as he slowly gave her some of his magic. Only to be slightly stunned when said woman let out a little moan as he finished up, he quickly pulled away to get a better look at her.

And what he saw caused a wave of relief to wash over him, because she no longer looked as if she was on death's doorstep anymore. Granted she still didn't look too good, but it was a huge improvement when compared to just a few seconds ago. So after he saw that claiming her as his mate was at least helping her some, Natsu quickly went to go and attend to his two teammates that were definitely not in the best condition either.

It took him a few minutes to get them all patched up and ready to be carried out of there, during which his most recent decision finally started to sink in on him. And how it truly could change his life in ways that he never even considered when he looked at Aries slowly dying before him. So with a small sigh Natsu started to carry all three of them out of the completely destroyed guild hall, left alone with his thoughts about how all of this could turn out for him in the future.

 **End of Chapter**

 **Author's Notes:**

 **There you go and I really hope you all enjoyed reading it. So first off this was a story that a reader of mine requested for their birthday, which I'm fairly confident that I missed by a few weeks, but better late than never I guess. Anyways I am planning on this being a mini story that only has a few chapters to it, that is unless I get a lot of feedback saying you want more. Well I guess that's it for this note so as always feel free to drop me a review or pm and I'll get reply back as soon as I can.**

 **Oh and if you would like me to update faster or possibly start a new story I have information about my page that I set up on my profile page.**

 **Until the next Chapter**

 **Digem Out!**


	2. Natsu's Not So Little Secret

Ch 2: Natsu's Not So Little Secret

 **Spirit Realm the next day:**

A sense of uneasiness settled down upon the whole spirit realm as the news of Aries not returning yet spread as fast as a wild fire would through a dry forest that hasn't had a drop of rain in months. Most of them now feared that the unthinkable happened finally, and that they might have to start looking for a new spirit to take up the mantle that Aries has held for longer than most of them have been alive. But a few select spirits that actually fought with Lucy during this most recent fight knew that she would never let something like that happen while she was still alive, which she was. Something that all of them contracted under her could tell, since once their contract was broken by the untimely death of their Master their keys would instantly return to them to be given back to a new Masters if their old one wasn't killed by another Celestial mage that would most likely be forming new contracts with them.

But even knowing that Lucy was still alive didn't really ease them from worrying at what could possibly be keeping their comrade over there. They were so worried that a few of them were starting to contemplate if they should also go over there on their own and see what's going on. And just as Loke was about to do exactly that, the Spirit King made a royal proclamation that none of them were to ever leave their realm on just their own power like he was just about to do. This of course caused Loke to get into a slight argument with the Spirit King which ended with him skulking off by himself knowing that he unfortunately couldn't help unless Lucy called on him. Otherwise he would once again be kicked out of the spirit realm and even Lucy wouldn't be able to get him back into it this time since he honestly shouldn't have been let back in the first place.

And as Loke was walking away the Spirit King decided to make an announcement to the rest of the spirits he ruled over. He was hoping that it would calm them down enough for him to properly deal with the unprecedented situation he found them in. Because he never in his entire life had something like this happened before, and honestly he wouldn't have believed it if he hadn't actually witnessed it for himself. Now all he had to do was figure out how Natsu was going to deal with all of it, and hope that he was satisfied with the boy's responses otherwise he would be forced to intervene and do the unthinkable.

"As I'm sure you've all heard by now, Aries has yet to return from her last trip to her Master's side." stated the Spirit King in a commanding voice that could be heard through the entire realm. "I'm here to tell all of you my old friends that she is still alive. And due to circumstances that were completely out of her hands she is now in a situation that I myself could have never seen coming. But as soon as she's back to her usual strength I'll personally bring her and the one responsible for her new predicament back here to sort all of this out." he finished before heading back to his throne room where he could watch what was going on in Earth-land.

He knew that this announcement of his would satisfy most of his subjects that were really concerned for their friend. While for a few of them it would only intrigue them and cause them to come to him and ask who was responsible for keeping Ares over there. This was something that he could go without, but he would rather deal with a few of them asking him questions instead of lying to all of them like he would have had to do otherwise.

"You have no idea what that one profoundly stupid, yet also lifesaving action of yours will have on you and the rest of the world Natsu Dragneel. But I am grateful that you saved her life when no one else could have, hopefully when we meet again you'll prove to me that the other part of you isn't who you actually are." thought the Spirit King with a slight frown as he watch said pink haired man leave the room that contained one of his subjects and went into the room next to it.

 **With Natsu:**

It's been just two days since he had to carry his whole team back to the nearest town and get all of them medical treatment. And since the town was quite small their only doctor ran everything out of her own house, which they are currently in and using both of her spare rooms. With the bigger room going to Lucy and Happy, while Aries was the sole occupant of the other one that might have just been an extremely large closet before it was turned into another room for the doctor's patients.

And over these last two days to Natsu's dismay none of his three friends had regained consciousness, which really didn't surprise him too much given how wounded they all were when he finally got them here. Something that Rachel kept telling him was to be expected, she was the doctor that was kind enough to look after them without any payment right away. That was something that he was going to make sure she was rewarded for when he and the rest of them finally went back home, hopefully that would include the spirit that wasn't returning to her own realm for some unknown reason.

After making sure that none of the others were in any critical state Rachel tried to take a look at him, but got a good dose of how stubborn he can be about certain things. So she reluctantly went back to work on the others as he sat there covered in wounds while watching what she was doing like a hawk. And once she finished up with everything that she could do for her three new patients she was shocked to notice that a few of the dragon slayer's wounds were already gone. After seeing that she decided to not try and push the topic anymore since he seemed to have an extraordinarily fast regenerative rate when compared to most people.

So for the next two days Natsu barely got any sleep since he kept going back and forth between the two rooms to make sure that they were all fine. And even if he wasn't constantly getting up to check on the occupants of the other room he knew that he would barely get any sleep. His mind was racing with all sorts of situations with how this could all go down once they woke up, and unfortunately the most common thread in all of them was everyone getting extremely upset with him. Because he without the consent of Aries did something extremely personal and locked her in as his mate no matter how she might feel about him.

"Why do I always have to screw things up." he said with a sigh while taking a seat next to the bed with Lucy in it.

"I wouldn't say that you always screw things up." she replied while giving him a tired smile, causing him to jump back in surprise. Since he was too caught up in his own thoughts to detect that she was finally awake, which he was okay with since she started to giggle at his startled reaction.

"You're finally awake." he stated while coming back to her bedside and holding one of her hands gently.

"That's all thanks to you and Aries coming to my aid and saving me like I knew you would." she said with a warm smile sent his way, while noticing that he made a weird expression when she mentioned her spirit.

"I was too slow, if it hadn't been for Aries I wouldn't have gotten there in time." mumbled Natsu, one of the things that also kept going through his mind over these past two days. That if he was just a few seconds slower both Lucy and Aries would no longer be with him.

"But you weren't Natsu, and that's all that matters now." she stated, already being able to see that he was beating himself up over something like this. And after being his partner for as long as she has she probably knew what was going on in his head better than he did sometimes.

"But…" he started only to be silenced with her putting two of her fingers over his lips.

"But nothing Natsu, you can't keep doing this to yourself even when nothing bad happened." she said while giving him one of her usual smiles.

"Nothing bad happened?" he asked her back in a slightly angry tone that caught the celestial mage off guard. "You and everyone else have been out for two whole days and almost died due to the wounds that all of you had." he finished while gesturing to her and Happy.

"Really two whole days?" she asked with a stunned look on her face.

"Yes." was his simple reply as they locked eyes with each other, letting the blonde know instantly that it was the truth by the look he was currently giving her.

"You've been out longer than that tons of times." came the slightly distorted voice of Happy, thanks to the blue feline somehow already having a fish in his mouth.

"When did you wake up and where in the world did you get that fish?" asked Natsu as he pointed at the fish as if he had never seen one of them before in his life.

"A while ago and don't worry about it." mumbled Happy as he continued to munch on the fish and gave his friend a dismissive wave. And just like that Natsu was no longer concerned about him barely being able to save them in time and was arguing with his Exceed partner about this and that. Causing Lucy to giggle at their usual antics since it eased her concern about the dragon slayer who she thought was acting ever so slightly off from how he usually would.

"I'm glad to see that the two of you are finally awake." stated Rachel as she came into the room just as Natsu and Happy were having tug of war with a different fish that the Exceed once again got from who knows where.

"I was worried that the three of you might never wake up." she said while starting to inspect Lucy since she was still in her bed.

"Three of us?" asked Lucy with an eyebrow raised.

But before Rachel could reply Natsu beat her to the punch. "Yeah, after getting the two of you here I also passed out for a few hours." he said while rubbing the back of his head with a nervous look and chuckle coming from him. And Lucy could have sworn that Rachel gave him an odd look before going back to making sure that she was fine.

"You should really be more careful Natsu." stated Happy with a huge smirk before he let out a large belch and contently rubbed his now large stomach. And to the keen observer, they would have also noticed that the fish that the two of them had been fighting over before was now gone.

"I don't want to hear that from you after everything that just happened." replied Natsu with slight glare sent the Exceed's way.

"But he does have a point Natsu." said Lucy as Natsu turned to look at her with a look of disbelief plastered on his face. "As he was saying before, you are usually the one that's knocked out for a few days thanks to you pushing yourself harder than anyone else." she finished with a serious look sent his way, causing the fire dragon slayer to let out a sigh of defeat.

"Fine, just don't make a habit of any of this because as you both just said this is kinda my thing." he said with a slight grin.

"If that's true than you are extremely fortunate that you have that extraordinary healing factor of yours." stated Rachel as she finished up her check up on Lucy and headed over to the Exceed.

"His what?" asked Happy with a confused expression.

"Healing factor, it's the only thing that I could think of to describe how quick your friend's body heals itself." she answered as Happy and Lucy both had a look of realization come over their face since they have seen it firsthand. And it would also explain why the dragon slayer would appear to come out of most of his fights with only a few cuts and tears to his outfit.

"How much faster is he than the normal person?" asked Lucy as she looked over at the person they were speaking about and could see he didn't seem to care and was in his own thoughts once again. Which was something that slightly concerned her since he was rarely seen doing anything like that since as long as she's known him.

"That's hard to say, but from what I could tell it's at least fifty times as fast as your normal human if not more. But to get a good estimation I would have to run a few tests on him." she replied while finishing up on the Exceed and heading towards the door.

"I've got another patient to check on so please wait here until I return." she said before exiting through the door.

"I've got a few things to talk with Rachel about." blurted out Natsu before disappearing through the same door that Rachel did just seconds ago.

"Well that was a little odd." pointed out Lucy as she looked over at Happy.

"When isn't Natsu odd?" he asked once again getting a new fish from god only knows where.

"I guess you've got a point there, but seriously Happy. Where are you getting these fish from?" she asked him back with an amused smile spread across her face.

"Don't worry about it Lucy, you should be more worried about losing some of that weight you've gained recently." replied the Blue Exeed before a pillow knocked him and his fish off of the bed and to the ground as another pillow narrowly missed his head as he popped it back up.

"You're going to regret that Cat!" declared the celestial mage as she glared at the Exceed for once again making fun of her weight.

 **With Natsu and Rachel inside of Aries' room:**

"I thought that all of you were friends?" asked Rachel as Natsu came into the room after her.

"We are, it's just that this is a little complicated at the moment." he replied while scratching the back of his head and trying to come up with a good way to explain this to her.

"How's it complicated if you are all friends like you claim? If I was either of them I would want to know that my other friend is not dead and is in a similar state to what they used to be in." she said while inspecting a few of the wounds that were now completely gone from the girl laying in the bed.

"She's a spirit, and I honestly don't know why she's still even here and not back in her realm." said Natsu after a few long moments of complete silence between the two of them. And after finally letting someone else know this secret of his, he instantly could feel some of the weight on him lessen to a certain degree.

"She's a spirit?" she asked him with a skeptical look.

"Why in the world would I lie to you about something like this?" he asked her with a displeased look coming over his face.

"You'd be surprised what people will say to cover up how they got injured." she replied while inspecting the woman in the bed with a new mindset.

"I've already told you what happened." he stated with an exhausted sigh since he had to retell this story four times already. Once to her and the mayor as he gave him the reward, and the last two times were to the Rune Knights and representatives of the Council that cleaned up after him.

"That you did, but now that you've decided to inform me that she's a spirit I can only assume there's more to all of it." she said while not looking up from her work.

"There is, but I didn't get there fast enough to find out for myself and I can only assume that Lucy doesn't know either since she isn't freaking out right now." he replied with a frown, hating that he was keeping all of this from his partners in the other room. But he didn't know what else to do at the moment and had a strange feeling that they would only just start freaking out and not actually help out with anything.

"So is she the celestial mage? And I mean no offence when I say this but you don't really seem like the kind of person that would allow someone else to fight for him." she said while giving him a quick glance.

"None taken and you would be correct about all of that." he answered with a little grin as he thought about being a celestial mage. He knew that he would most likely use them as training partners to help him with his other fighting skills and magic if he had a different one as well. And for the next few minutes he was lost in thought, thinking about which of Lucy's spirits he would probably train with the most. He came to the conclusion that it would most likely be multiple of them so that it would actually be a challenge for him since he was confident that he could take all of them on his own with the small exception of possibly Aquarius.

"Interesting." mumbled Rachel to herself, which resulted in Natsu being snapped away from his current thoughts of fighting Lucy's spirits if she allowed him to.

"What is it?" he asked now in a concerned tone and a matching look coming over his face.

"This is just a guess, but it would appear that she is no longer just a celestial spirit." she answered while starting to write things down on the clipboard that she carried around with her.

"How in the world did something like that happen?" asked Natsu with a terrified, knowing that it was most likely because of claiming her as his mate. And now he was worried that because of his rash decision she might not ever be able to return to her realm anymore.

"It's hard for me to really say when I haven't been told everything that happened that day." she replied while giving him a knowing look. So with a long sigh Natsu decided that he might as well tell her the last bit of information that he was keeping from her.

"And then I carried all of them here after getting directions from someone in town." he finished with an exhausted and guilty look taking up residence on his face.

"That is quite the tale, and honestly if she wasn't laying here right now I probably wouldn't have believed a word of it." she stated while having her eyes closed and pinching the bridge of her nose and looking to be in deep thought.

"To think that dragon slayers actually still exist and are capable of doing something like this." she finished while looking up and seeing his current state.

"I couldn't just let her die." he mumbled with a defeated look washing over his face.

"And from what I've heard she definitely would have if you didn't make her your mate." said Rachel, glad to see that those words from her had a very profound effect on the dragon slayer in the room with her.

"Really?" he asked with a hopeful expression sent her way.

"Absolutely, but that doesn't mean it also isn't now preventing her from going back to the spirit realm." she answered with a slight frown.

"I was starting to guess that might be the case now." he replied while also having a slight frown, taking a little solace in the fact that he did in fact save her life by making her his mate.

"But it could just as easily not be the reason for her still being here since you said that she couldn't return back before you even tried such a reckless thing." she stated with a faint smile gracing her lips. Wondering how someone could so willingly give up the chance to be with the one they were destined to be with just to save the life of someone else.

"Hopefully she'll be able to tell us more about this once she wakes up." he said while looking over at the spirit with a concerned look on his face. "And when exactly do you think that will be?" he asked turning back to look at Rachel.

"It's hard to say, but after hearing everything that you know about what happened. I would have to say that she won't be up for at least two more days." she said with a smile, noticing the look of relief wash over the pink haired man after hearing this from her.

"As for your other two friends they are free to leave whenever they want to." she finished, thinking that he would be happy to hear this. But instead of that his face turned into one of someone in deep thought and having a hard time deciding something.

"Would you be able to look after Aries for me until I return sometime tomorrow?" he asked with a look that told her he was being completely serious with this question and that it clearly meant a lot to him.

"Fine, but why don't you just stay here like you have for the last two days?" she asked with a confused expression.

"I still need to figure out how I'm going to explain all of this to my guild, and hopefully I'll figure it out while I take Lucy and Happy back to Magnolia." he answered while going to Aries' bedside and gently combing away some of her stray hair that was slightly covering her face.

"I guess you probably know best how to handle your current situation." she replied with a shrug of her shoulders as she headed towards the door. Glancing back just in time to see Natsu lean down and give the spirit a quick kiss on her forehead while whispering something to her that she couldn't hear for herself. But whatever he said apparently the spirit heard and caused the traces of a smile to start forming on the face that up till this point had remained blank.

"Alright, we'll be out of your hair in just a few minutes and here's the rest of the jewels that I owe you." he said while passing her in the hallway and handing her a small bag. That once she opened could easily tell was way more than what he owed her by at least ten times and even that was low balling it.

"This is way too much." she stuttered out in shock.

"No it isn't, especially given how great you've treated us and also helped keep my little secret." he said before coming to a stop in front of the door to where Lucy and Happy were currently still having a pillow fight in with each other.

"Still, I can't accept this much from you for only doing my job." she replied while trying to hand it back to him.

"Then think of it as a little extra to still keep my secret and help anyone else who is need and doesn't have enough jewels to pay for your bills on their own." he stated before getting one of his usual grins on his face and entering the room to only have a pillow instantly hit him in the face as the door closed behind him.

"You're definitely a unique mage even for Fairy Tail." she said to herself as a smile spread across her face while going somewhere else in her house to most likely put away the jewels she was just given.

 **Later that night just outside of train station in Magnolia:**

"You've been acting weird Natsu." pointed out Happy from on top of the dragon slayer's head.

"Have I?" he asked, cursing to himself for being so obvious that Happy felt the need to actually say something about it.

"You have." answered Lucy as she looked at him questioningly. "You didn't even try to convince us to not ride the train and you've also been extremely quiet compared to what you usually are." she said, trying to watch and see if his body language would fill her in on what he might be concerned about or trying to hide from them.

"I've just had a lot on my mind recently." he replied with a nervous chuckle. This caused Happy to start freaking out and accusing Natsu of not being the real deal since according to the Exceed at least, Natsu would never think about things other than food and fighting. And for once Natsu was actually thankful for the Exceed over reacting like this since it took up most of the time until they made it to the guildhall.

"Fine, I guess you might be the real Natsu but don't scare me like that." stated Happy as he landed on Natsu's right shoulder and pulled out a fish that he instantly started to eat with gusto.

"So what's on your mind?" asked Lucy while giving him a concerned look.

"Nothing that you need to worry about." he answered with his usual grin that seemed to lack something in Lucy's opinion. But before she could ask him what was actually going on his grin turned to the one that he usually had when returning back from a quest like they were.

"We're back!" shouted Natsu as he kicked open the doors of the guild. He forgot that since they were no longer in their old guild hall and were on using an old building on the outskirts of town that the doors couldn't handle his usual entrance. And he watched in horror as the door went flying towards Erza, who at the moment was eating one of her strawberry cheesecakes with a content smile. But luckily for him Elfman got in the way at the last possible second and took the door to the face, and subsequently saved Natsu and everyone else in the guild from Erza's wrath.

"Way to go Flame Brain." stated Gray with his usual smirk, expecting Natsu to instantly get into a fight with him like he usually did.

"Not now Gray, I've got to turn in our quest to Gramps so I can go do other things." he stated, causing most of the guild to quiet down and look at him as if he had grown a new head. All of them watching him walk up to Makarov and hand back the flier that they took a few days ago with it signed by the client as completed.

"How did the mission go my boy?" asked Makarov as he accepted the flyer. He had already learned from the Council about most of the details of the mission since they were shocked that Natsu and Lucy were capable of taking down that many strong members of a dark guild all by themselves. Especially when one of them was a certain water mage, that was supposedly the strongest water mage in the Country and leagues above Juvia who was still at the level of S-Class in Makarov's opinion.

"It's done." was Natsu's curt response as he turned away from Makarov intent on leaving the guild as soon as he could. But he ran straight into the breastplate of a certain red headed knight looking at him with a questioning look on her face.

"That's not like you Natsu, you usually love talking about your latest job completed." she stated while looking him over for something that might explain this odd behavior from him.

"I just don't feel like talking about it." he mumbled back, hoping that would be enough for the woman currently blocking his way to leave him alone.

"See, I told you that it wasn't the real Natsu!" shouted Happy while floating next to Lucy and pointing at his friend accusingly. And just like the last time Happy accused him of not being Natsu it caused the poor dragon slayer to be caught up in nothing but complete chaos. But this time it wasn't just Happy asking him all sorts of questions that he really didn't want to answer, luckily for him this time Makarov could tell Natsu was close to snapping so he decided to step in.

"That's enough everyone, let him explain himself before you keep asking him all sorts of questions." said Makarov loud enough to get everyone else in the guild to stop talking.

"Now Natsu does your lack of usual excitement have anything to do with how you left a few of their guild members?" he asked knowing that the dragon slayer would rather just be by himself right now. But he had to ask since the boy was clearly not his usual cheerful self they all grew accustomed to.

"And what do you mean by that Gramps?" asked Natsu while giving the elderly man a slight scowl.

"I don't know, how about one of them having every bone in both of her hands crushed to the point that she'll never be able to use them properly again even if she was allowed to be treated by the country's best healers?" he replied, not caring about the shocked looks that he and Natsu were getting at the moment from the rest of the guild.

"Or maybe about their water mage who is now confident that you are out to kill him? And he even claims that you were planning to evaporate his body so no one would know that you killed him." he finished while looking into the eyes of the boy he always considered his child like everyone else in the guild. He was hoping to see a look of shock flash through Natsu's eyes, but all he saw instead was a look of anger flare up at the mention of the two specific dark mages he mentioned.

"That has nothing to do with me not wanting to talk about it." replied Natsu while not breaking eye contact with Makarov. "And those two are lucky that's all I did to them." he said with a slight growl that caused a few members to take a step back and he once again tried to leave the guild hall.

But this time a large hand grabbed him and spun him so he was once again face to face with the Master of Fairy Tail. "Natsu this isn't like you at all, so you're not leaving here until you tell me what the hell is going on." declared the elderly titan mage as the two of them glared at each other in complete silence for the next few minutes until Natsu finally let out a sigh and stopped glaring back at Makarov.

"You want to know what happened Gramps?" he asked with his head down so that his eyes were covered by his hair. "If I hadn't acted the way I did then I would be the only one coming back from that job alive." he said before Makarov could tell him that he wanted to know what transpired.

"Oh my." stated Mira with a shocked look that most of the guild also had while she covered her mouth with her hands.

"If I took just a few seconds longer, Lucy and Happy would both be dead right now." he continued to say while looking back up with nothing but rage filled eyes. Not liking the fact that he came so close to losing two of the people he cared about the most in the world just because he wasn't strong enough to protect them properly.

"So no I don't really want to go into detail about finding both of them barely clinging to life! Or how after finding them in that state it took everything I had to not go and kill every last member of that guild for even being remotely involved in any of it!" he said loud enough for everyone to hear, even though they all would have easily heard him thanks to how quiet the rest of the guild was at the moment.

"Natsu wait." called out Lucy as everyone moved out of the dragon slayer's way to the exit.

"Sorry Luce, but I need some time alone to sort out some things. And that also goes for you as well Happy." he said as he came to a stop in the doorway that no longer had a door thanks to him trying to pretend everything was fine when they returned.

"Hold on one moment Natsu." said Makarov in a serious tone that caused Natsu to stop and look back at him and the rest of the guild that was looking at him in shock.

"What is it Gramps? Because I really don't want to stay here any longer than I have to right now." he asked, now regretting that he let all of that out in front of the entire guild.

"I just wanted to inform you that we're going to be participating in this new thing that they established while we were missing. It's called the Grand Magic Games and it'll be taking place in a little more than three months from now, which is why we decided while you and Lucy were gone that we would break up into teams to start training for them." answered Makarov while giving the pink haired boy a concerned look, knowing that there had to be something more going on that he has yet to learn.

"So I take it you want me to make sure that I'm back by then?" he asked as he turned away and had his back to all of them.

"Yes, but I would definitely prefer it if you were able to meet up with the rest of your group and train with them." replied the guild Master as he gave Erza a nod to tell Natsu where to meet up with them.

"We're going to be heading to the beach outside of the Akane Resort in a few days. Once we're all rested up and ready to get into some rigorous training." she said, not wanting to let him head off by himself like he was intending to do. But seeing as how Makarov and Lucy both seemed to not be doing anything to stop him she thought it might be better if she followed their lead on this one.

"I'll try and be there as soon as I can." he replied before walking off as everyone continued to watch him in silence. A silence that continued on well after he was out of their sight, most likely because none of them really knew what to say after witnessing all of that from their usually most carefree member.

"Did all of that really happen?" asked Mira as she looked over at the two that went on the job with Natsu. She like a few other guild members, needed to know if they had almost lost two of their members just a few days ago if it hadn't been for him acting out in an uncharacteristically brutal way.

"I don't really know since I only just woke up earlier today." answered Lucy with a frown as she continued to look out the door where he was last seen by all of them.

"The same goes for me." replied Happy as he flew over to Lucy, who instantly brought him into a comforting hug.

"You don't think Flame Brain is going to do something he might regret?" asked Gray, not caring that he was actually showing concern for his rival.

"I could trail Salamander and make sure he doesn't." suggested Gajeel as he got up and headed towards the door intent on doing just that.

"You will not Gajeel, and I have faith that Natsu won't do anything that he usually wouldn't do on any other given day." stated Makarov in a commanding tone, since it was pretty obvious that the two boys were definitely not the only ones wanting to go after the fire dragon slayer and make sure that he was okay.

"But shouldn't we go after him and make sure he knows that he's not alone in all of this?" asked Lisanna with a concerned look clearly spread across her whole face and didn't look like it was going to go away until she knew that Natsu was fine.

"That is the one thing that I'm confident he probably knows better than anyone else here. Just think of how many times he's been there for someone else when they really needed him to be, so if he needs time to himself then I'm sure that is exactly what he needs." he explained before taking a big drink from his mug that was slightly warm due to him not drinking from it for a while.

"Master you know how hard it is to get him to actually admit that he needs help." pointed out Erza as others couldn't help but nod in agreement at how infuriating he could be about letting others help him.

"I do, but that was ages ago for him. And he's matured a lot since then, which can be seen with how much he's help everyone else like I just said earlier." he responded while looking into his mug and hoping he was making the correct decision right now.

"Fine, but I along with everyone else want to know exactly what the two of you can remember about your last job." she said while turning to look at Lucy and Happy with a stern look.

"Sure." mumbled Lucy as she finally peeled her eyes off of the door and took a seat at the bar. And once there she with the help of Happy filled them all in on their fight, that was fairly normal until they ran into the white haired girl that was extremely gifted in telekinesis. All of this took the two of them several minutes to accomplish, causing a few of their friends to look angry at how bad she and Happy were beaten by this dark guild. But considering what they all heard from Natsu before he departed, they were confident that he definitely gave anyone that stood in his way to Lucy and Happy a beat down that they soon wouldn't forget.

"And the last thing I remember is Aries coming out on her own to save me." finished Lucy only for her to have a startled expression come over her face as she just realized something. "Oh my god, why didn't I think of that sooner? We could just ask Aries what happened while Happy and I were knocked out." she said while pulling out said Spirit's key with a bright smile coming over her face.

But just as everyone thought the blonde celestial mage was going to summon her spirit she stopped and looked at the key with an eyebrow raised questioningly. "Lu is everything alright?" asked Levy as she came up to her friend that was still standing there looking at the key as if something was off.

"I don't know, Aries key is warmer when compared to how it usually is." she replied while grabbing a different one of her keys to test if all of them were hotter than they usually are.

"You can actually notice a difference in their temperature?" asked Erza with an impressed look sent the blonde's way.

"Of course I can, it's no different than anyone else sensing something off with any of their spells." she answered while putting away Loke's key since it was like the rest of her keys and acting normal. " **OPEN GATE OF THE RAM: ARIES!** " she declared while doing a swipe with the key. But unlike every other time anyone has ever seen her summon a spirit of hers, this time nothing happened at all which clearly shocked Lucy who now had a slightly terrified look come over her face.

" **OPEN GATE OF THE RAM: ARIES!** " she cried out in a slightly panicked tone as she did another slash with it.

"Has this ever happened before?" asked Mira who looked at the blonde with a worried expression on her face.

"Never." she replied while looking down at the key in her hands with a sad look. Only for her and a few others to let out a startled yelp as the key caught on fire and disappeared right before all of their eyes.

"Was that supposed to happen?" asked Romeo, only for the next second to have his father covering his mouth and pulling him back into the crowd.

"No it wasn't." mumbled Lucy as she fell to her knees and tried not to break down in front of all her family. Luckily for her, within the next few seconds Mira and a few other girls were at her side with comforting words. Letting her know that it was okay to let it out and that if there was anything she needed that they would happily do it.

"You don't think this has something to do with why Natsu was acting so strange do you?" Erza whispered to Makarov as the two of them looked with prominent frowns at the poor girl that just lost a friend of hers with no explanation whatsoever.

"I'm afraid that is exactly what I'm thinking at the moment." he replied back to her as he glanced over at the door, knowing that he wasn't going to see the dragon slayer that had a knack for being at the center of most things but really wished that he wouldn't be this time.

"Couldn't you call out Loke and see if he knows what's going on?" suggested Happy as he was patting the blonde's head gently. And the next second he was sent flying across the room thanks to Lucy jumping straight back up after hearing the Exceed's suggestion.

" **OPEN GATE OF THE LION: LEO!** " she said while getting rid of the last of her tears with her other free hand as the one holding the spirit's key did a quick swipe motion.

"You called for me Lucy." replied Loke in his usual flirtatious manner as he appeared in front of her with a slight smirk.

"What happened to Aries?" asked Lucy as she gave the spirit a very stern glare. Most of Fairy Tail was expecting Loke to brush her question off and start flirting with her like he usually did, but none of them expected to see the known playboy lose his confident look and replace it with a very concerned one.

"What do you mean what happened to Aries? I thought that she was with you guys and couldn't come back to the spirit realm for some reason." he asked her back only to notice that Lucy no longer had Aries key on her keyring anymore.

"Well she isn't and when I tried to summon her nothing happened, but to make matters worse her key then all of a sudden burned up and was gone." explained the celestial mage as she continued to look into her spirit's eyes, and instantly not liking what she saw flash through them.

"That couldn't have happened." he finally muttered while turning away from her and running a hand through his hair.

"It did Loke, and if you know anything at all about what is going on we would all greatly appreciate it." said Makarov as he and everyone else looked at the spirit expectantly since it was clear he had at least a slight idea of what was currently happening.

"I don't know really how else to say this." he replied while looking at Lucy with a sad look. "There is only two reasons for her key to do something like that, either she has a new Master or has died." he said causing his Master to break down into tears once again. Which was something that the spirit really hated seeing her do, almost as much as a certain dragon slayer that he just now noticed was absent from the crowd of Fairy Tail members. He made a note to ask them about the missing dragon slayer that would usually comfort Lucy in situations like this, but first he had to let them know that it was most likely the former of the two options that he gave.

"But I highly doubt that Aries is dead." he said, instantly causing Lucy to stop mid sob and look up at him hopefully.

"And why exactly do you believe that Loke? Because I thought that the only way for her to get a new Master is for a different Celestial Mage to beat Lucy and take her keys." asked Erza who remembered back to when Lucy got a few new keys from Angel by beating her in a heated battle that almost ended in the blonde's death.

"It's true that is the only way that I know of a spirit getting a new Master. But just a little bit ago the Spirit King made an announcement that Aries was alright and that he would soon be bringing her back to us." answered the spirit in a confident tone that made Lucy feel revealed that Aries was still at least alive.

"You wouldn't happen to know what happened after Lucy and Happy were both knocked out in their last fight?" asked Levy, hoping that Loke did since he has been known to also show up without Lucy summoning him when she really needed him.

"Unfortunately I don't since I helped Lucy out earlier in that battle." he replied with a slight frown. "So where in the world is Natsu if you don't mind me asking?" he asked turning towards Lucy and instantly regretting that he asked that question since it seemed to only make her sadder than she already was.

"We don't know, after he returned with Lucy and Happy he informed me that the job was complete and made it clear that he needed some time alone." replied Makarov before anyone else could answer.

"That doesn't sound like him at all." stated the spirit with a slightly stunned expression coming over his face.

"You can say that again, he didn't even try and fight me like he usually would after completing a job." said Gray as he waved Mira over to him and ordered a drink.

"Do you think I'll ever see her again?" asked Lucy just above a whisper as she tugged on Loke's sleeve to get his attention.

"Of course you will Lucy, you know how much she loved having you as her Master." he replied right before he was brought into a hug by the blonde. "And if she can't I'll figure out some way for the two of you to see each other again." he finished while hugging her back.

"Thanks Loke." she said while still hugging him as if he might disappear on her any second.

"I'll always be there when you need me Lucy, and unless you need me for something else I think I'll be heading back." he said while giving her a comforting smile as they separated from their embrace.

"Nope, you're free to go." she replied while giving him a slight smile back as he disappeared in a flash.

"So I was initially thinking that we would start our training tomorrow, but after what…" Erza started to say in a slightly awkward tone only to be cut off by the person she least expected to.

"So tomorrow it is, which means we only have a little time left to get everything we might need packed." stated Lucy while giving Happy a smile that the Exceed soon shared with her.

"Aye Sir, and that's not including all of the fish that we need to either catch or buy by then." he replied while taking a seat on her shoulder as she headed towards the exit.

"I'm not going to help you with either of those." she replied while rolling her eyes at him.

"Why not Lucy? Without Natsu being here you're my only other dependable source of fish!" he declared while taking flight and being right in her face as the two then started to bicker with each other like they usually would.

"You all heard her, I expect all of you to start your training tomorrow and only return to the guild once you're confident that you've done everything that you can to prepare for the upcoming Grand Magic Games." declared Makarov, resulting with a determined cheer ringing out of the guild as the rest of them then filled out to also get ready for their own training.

"What have you gotten yourself into this time Natsu?" Makarov asked himself, only growing more concerned for the pink haired fire mage after learning that something happened to Lucy's last spirit that came to help her.

 **Three days later with Natsu at Rachel's house:**

"You said that you'd be here two days ago." she stated as she opened the door for him and he came into her house and followed her to one of the back rooms.

"That I did, but I forgot that it would require me to ride a train in order to get back here that fast." he said with a little disgust in his voice that perplexed the healer. "So did she wake up while I was gone?" he then asked in a very concerned tone.

"No she didn't but a few odd things happened while you were gone, like this pleasant little surprise." she answered while opening up the door to the room Natsu last knew Aries was in. And when he looked in he was shocked to see that it looked as if a large fire had raged inside of it but only burnt the bed to nothing but ashes and slightly singed the areas around it.

"But even more shocking than that would have to be the change to her appearance." she continued while opening up the next door to her other room that she had set aside for her patients to recover in.

As the two of them walked in Natsu instantly took notice of the woman still asleep in the bed and would have believed it to be someone completely different if it wasn't for her scent telling him otherwise. The first thing that he noticed different about the spirit was that her horns that used to be brown were now a beautiful gold and appeared to be slightly bigger than they were before. The next change he saw was that her hair no longer stopped at her shoulders anymore and instead went all the way down to her waist. And as he followed her hair down he came to the realization that her complexion was no longer that of white porcelain like it used to be, but it was now that of someone who got more than enough sun.

It gave her probably one of the best tans that he has ever seen on a woman, which probably even looked better thanks to the contrast it had to her white dress that looked like an upside down flower about to open. This then caused Natsu to finally take notice of the other new additions to the spirit's new appearance, which was a pair of black gloves that went all the way to her elbows and a pair of black boots that stopped just shy of her knees. Both of which she had slightly different versions of before, which couldn't be said about the pink sun glasses or weird collar she was also wearing. And the collar was really weird to Natsu since it was connected to a black chain that then split into two and went over her chest until they wrapped around her and connected together behind her. While he inspected the chains he couldn't help but think to himself that her rack looked ever so slightly bigger than the last time he was watching over the spirit as she slept.

As he thought this he couldn't help the slight blush that came over his face, which caused Rachel to start chuckling at him. "She's quite the beauty now isn't she?" asked Rachel with a little chuckle.

"And that's not me saying she wasn't beautiful before she changed, far from it actually. But my current guess is that she changed to be closer to what you might truly desire in a mate." she explained, causing Natsu to become a stuttering mess as he tried to deny that he didn't like her more now.

"She was completely fine the way she was before." he finally mumbled to himself since Rachel would only keep teasing him about his face telling the truth about all of this.

"And I believe that she probably was to you." she said after deciding that she had gotten enough fun out of him at his own expense.

"But that doesn't mean there weren't a few things that she herself would have changed about herself if given the chance, which it would appear she might have been given now that she's your mate." she elaborated while now having a warm smile on her face.

"I sure hope that's way she changed, and yes she's now my mate but that doesn't mean I'm hers." he replied once again having a guilty look coming over his face. A look that she saw on his face quite often, his most common expression during the two days that he watched over his friends like a mother hen.

"Don't tell me that you're already giving up hope on her possibly liking you back?" she asked with a knowing smirk spread across her face.

"Of course not, but I won't ever make her do something she doesn't want to. And if that's being around me because of what I did to her then so be it." he answered with a determined look in his eyes as he said it. "So would you mind telling me what happened to the old room she used to be in?" he asked, not really wanting to talk about his mate possibly not liking him back.

"I was hoping that you could tell me, because when I came in there yesterday to check on her she was completely covered in golden flames." she answered while shaking her head at the memory.

"Flames that wouldn't go out despite whatever I tried to do to put them out. But luckily for me they only burned away the bed that she was on and once they died down she looked the way she does now." she finished while looking at him with a questioning look.

"Igneel did say that my mate might get some of my abilities, but I really didn't think that she would actually get my ability to use fire and have immunity to it. Even though hers is a different color for some reason." he stated as he summoned forth his own flames.

"I thought you said that your fire was a different color?" asked Rachel as she and Natsu both looked at his hand that was now covered in golden flames.

"I did." replied Natsu as he looked at his flames thinking that he had to be dreaming. "My fire is usually orange and this is the first time I've ever seen these before." he said with a dazed look on his face as he continued to look at his own flames.

"Looks as if she might have affected you some when you claimed her." she proposed while scratching her chin in thought.

"I guess." replied Natsu as his face scrunched up into one of absolute concentration as he intently stared at his flames. And he remained that way for a few minutes as Rachel watched silently wondering what he was trying to accomplish. But her answer came when his flames started to flicker and slowly shifted into a deep orange as the dragon slayer let out a sigh of relief while leaning back into his chair with his flames dispersing seconds later.

"So that's what they used to look like?" she asked while taking the seat next to him.

"Yep, but now they are harder to bring forth for some reason." he answered with a confused expression washing over his face.

"I've treated countless mages before you Mr. Dragneel, but none of them had anything even remotely as strange happen to them as what is currently happening with the two of you." she stated with a little smirk as she looked up at the ceiling in the room.

"I'd be concerned if you had run into a similar situation before." he said causing the both of them to share a chuckle at the thought of some other poor couple dealing with this and how unlikely that was.

"Did you happen to tell any of your friends about any of this?" she asked while lazily turning her head to look at him.

"No I didn't and I unfortunately think I might have only made things worse for me by doing so." he replied as a frown once again appeared on his face as he looked at Aries peacefully sleeping on the bed in front of them.

"There's nothing you can really do about it now." she stated while looking back up at the ceiling as if it might give her the answer to a question she's been trying to figure out for years.

"Yep, now all I need to do is figure out how to make it up to all of them once I go back to them." he said while rubbing his temples in thought.

"Don't you mean once the two of you return to them?" she asked with a huge smile as she pointed over at Aries causing Natsu to let out a tired sigh.

"For the last time Rachel, I won't make Aries to do anything she doesn't want to so I can't assume anything just yet." he replied while getting up with the intention of getting some fresh air. But before he even reached the door something caused him to stop in his tracks, something that he hoped wasn't just in his head. So he slowly turned around and was met with the smiling face of Rachel as she gave him a quick pat on the shoulder and left the two of them alone while chuckling to herself.

"Please say that I'm not just hearing what I want to be." he said while taking his seat once again.

"Natsu." came the quiet mumbling of the still asleep spirit as a look of discomfort came over her beautiful face. But as soon as it appeared it just as quickly vanished, thanks to a certain pink haired dragon slayer now right next to the bed and holding the spirit's hand gently. While once again brushing away some of Aries' stray hair that was more common thanks to her new hair style.

 **End of Chapter**

 **Author's Notes:**

 **So there you have it, the second chapter of A Dragon's Choice which if you didn't notice places this story right after they return from Tenrou Island and right before their first Grand Magic Games. Now I'm also guessing that you can all probably guess that the next few chapters will most likely deal with the games and how everyone will react to finding out what Natsu did in order to save Aries. But after I finish all of that up I'm interested in where you want me to go from there since I still plan on this one being a short story for now at least. Would you guys want me to skip forward to one of the few remaining arcs after I wrap up the Grand Magic Games or possibly skip to after all of that and go straight to the ending of this story? Or maybe you want me to do something completely different with this story, well whatever it is let me know in either a review or PM and I'll try to get back to you as soon as I can.**

 **Oh and if you would like me to update faster or possibly start a new story I have information about my page that I set up on my profile page.**

 **Until the next Chapter**

 **Digem Out!**


	3. There's A First Time For Everything

Ch 3: There's A First Time For Everything

 **In Rachel's house early the next morning:**

"Natsu!" gasped Aries as she shot up into a sitting position on her bed. Frantically looking around for the pink haired dragon slayer that tried his hardest to save her from the fate that most humans try everything they can to avoid. A fate that for spirits isn't a certainty like it is for human, but one nonetheless that she was able to come to terms with in her final moments since she knew that Lucy would still have him looking over her. Because even though Natsu told her that he was going to make sure that she could continue looking out for her Master, she knew that there was nothing he could do for her as she closed her eyes for the last time.

So it goes without saying that she was a little confused when she suddenly woke up in a strange room that she had never seen before and could tell right way that it wasn't whatever waited for her in the afterlife. You are probably wondering how she knew this for certain, and the answer to that question would be the smiling face of a certain pink haired mage that used to be known across the country as Salamander. The same person that for unknown reasons to her at the moment was the first thing she thought of and just had to make sure that he was okay. And just from one look at his signature grin she instantly knew that the only thing that might be off about the fire mage would be the slight lack of sleep that could be seen by the slight bags under his eyes.

"How are you feeling?" he asked her with his grin turning into a warm smile that made the spirit feel slightly flustered and shy. But this form of shyness was something slightly different than the usual one that she always had whenever called by Lucy.

"Fine, thanks to you." she replied while looking away from his intense gaze directed at her. Allowing her to realize that she was currently holding onto one of his hands that was in the middle of her lap. Seeing this she quickly let go of it, only to then realize that everything about herself was slightly different than before, when she thought she was going to die.

"I know it's a lot to take in." stated Natsu, easily being able to figure out what was currently going through the spirit's mind as she had a shocked look come over her face as gave her own body a thorough once over. "One of the unexpected side effects to me saving your life." he continued with a nervous chuckle as he once again had a guilty expression spread across his face.

"How is any of this even possible?" she asked while still looking at herself and seemed really pleased with her longer hair that she was currently playing with in between two of her fingers.

"Well you see that's where things start to get slightly complicated." he replied while nervously running a hand through his hair.

"No it doesn't, Mr. Dragneel here decided to mark you as his mate even though it had an extremely slim chance of actually saving you. Knowing full well that he might be condemning himself to never loving someone else for the rest of his life." stated Rachel, who was currently in the doorway leaning against the door frame with a huge smirk spread across her lips. "But seeing as you're now fine thanks to him doing all of that for you, he'll get to experience all of those beautiful things that come along with having a mate that loves him back." she finished with a little chuckle as Aries became the same color as her and Natsu's hair.

"For Mavis's sake you really don't beat around the bush do you?" asked Natsu as he glared at the older lady that really helped him out over the past few days. "And don't listen to her Aries, I was only doing what anyone would have done if they were in my position. So you don't owe me anything since seeing you right now is more than enough for me." he said while giving the spirit a loving smile.

"I never said that she owed you anything, but I did make sure to let her know what you gave up for her to still be among the living." commented the healer as she rolled her eyes at the glare Natsu was currently giving her.

"That you did, but did you really have to say it so bluntly?" he asked her back while still glaring at her.

"Yes, because if I didn't then it would've taken you forever to fill her in completely. And judging from what I've seen from you so far, who knows if you ever would have actually told her everything." she answered with a little giggle as he gave her a more intense glare but said nothing.

"You really did all of that for me?" asked Aries as she locked eyes with him.

"Yes but that doesn't mean you have to treat me any different than you would have before all of this." he replied while giving her a toothy grin that brought a smile to her own face. And without even realizing it the two of them started to gaze into each other's eyes fondly as they slowly got closer and closer. Only for them to stop, thanks to Rachel clearing her throat once they were less than an inch away from each other.

"I'll try." she replied with a faint blush tinting her cheeks as she turned away from him. She now felt slightly drawn to him and his protective aura that just radiated off of him in comforting waves, wondering if she was only feeling this way towards him because of him claiming her as his mate or if it was something else. And considering her complete and utter lack of experience in this particular area, she really didn't know what to make of these new feelings she was experiencing.

"I'm glad to hear that." he said after also pulling back from her and having a slightly nervous smile spread across his lips. "So Aries, do you have any idea why you didn't go back to your world?" he asked clearly embarrassed with himself and trying to bring back some sort of normality between the two of them again.

"I couldn't go back because of that lady's weird knife having some sort of sealing spell on it." she answered while instinctively clutching one of the areas on her stomach where she was stabbed by said weapon.

"I figured as much, which is why I got rid of that dagger so it couldn't hurt anyone else ever again." stated Natsu with a slight growl since he now had images of Aries bleeding out in front of him. And see them again, even in his mind, caused his anger to rise to dangerous levels that wouldn't be good for anyone going up against him in combat.

"If you did, then why am I still here?" she asked him with a confused expression gracing her gorgeous face.

"I don't know we were kind of hoping that you could fill us in since destroying the item that sealed you here didn't work." he answered while smiling at her confused expression that he found cute on her.

"Oh no, I'm just the worst spirit ever." said Aries as horrified look came over her face that she then covered with her hands as she started to cry. "I didn't even ask how Lucy is doing right now and I might be stealing her magical power as we speak to remain here." she got out between sobs. And as soon as she got all of it she was then brought into a warm and caring hug from the man already doing so much for her without expecting anything in return from her.

"No you aren't." he told her with one hundred percent conviction in his voice as his embrace around her tightened. "You were willing to sacrifice yourself in order to protect Lucy, who is completely fine and is either at the guild right now or at the beach training to get stronger." he said while starting to rub small circles on her back since it seemed to help calm down Lucy when she was upset like this. And luckily for him it seemed to also be working on the spirit who slowly stopped her sobbing and was now also hugging him back.

"Thanks Natsu and I'm sorry." she replied, feeling completely safe now that she had his arms wrapped around her in a comforting embrace.

"I'll always be there to help whenever you need me to." he said with a deep blush that he was thankful she couldn't see thanks to the hug that they were currently sharing with each other. "But it would be great if you didn't try something like that ever again, because the best thing you can do for your friends is to keep on living for them." he finished while not voice the major concern he had about honestly not knowing what would happen to himself if she died. But a small part of him knew that it wouldn't be good, which is why he would do absolutely anything he could to prevent that from happening.

"I'm sorry." she mumbled back while burying her face deeper into his chest. Once again becoming lost in her own thoughts that were all about the man comforting her right then and why was he being so nice to her. She thought that it might just because of her now being his mate, but from watching how he was with everyone else in Fairy Tail she knew that he would be doing the same thing right now even if they weren't mates.

"You've got nothing to be sorry for Aries, and I was starting to think that you weren't going to say that like you used to always do for some reason." he stated with a slight grin that she couldn't see. But Rachel saw it and everything else that just transpired between the two of them and couldn't help but smile at them.

"Well I'm going to leave you two lovebirds alone, but before I do I'd like to remind you that this is a place of healing and not some sort of bed and breakfast." stated the healer with a chuckle as she closed the door behind herself and left the two alone.

"I'm starting to regret giving her all of my jewels from that last job." mumbled Natsu as he loosened his embrace on Aries. Just in case she got embarrassed by Rachel's parting comment and didn't want to be hugging him anymore. But to his shock and joy the spirit didn't make any attempt to stop the caring embrace that they were sharing.

"You don't mean that Natsu and we are lovers now." she replied while not being able to remove her face from his chest due to the sheer embarrassment she was feeling after saying that.

"You're right about the first part and as for the whole lovers thing, that's something you can decide for yourself at a later time. For now at least I think we should just remain friends until you figure out how you feel about me." he said to her, even though a voice in his head was screaming bloody murder against the ridiculous idea.

"Thank you." she responded before her stomach let out a growl causing Natsu to start chuckling as she somehow became even more embarrassed than she already was before.

"Seems like it's time for us to go and get something to eat." he chuckled out as he tried to get back up, but couldn't due to the spirit still clutching him. Seeing this he stopped trying to get back up and went back to hugging his one and only mate. "I guess we can stay like this for a little longer." he said while going back to rubbing her back tenderly.

"What else do I need to know about becoming your mate?" she asked while closing her eyes and enjoying their current position.

"A lot, but aren't you at least a little bit upset with me for doing this without your consent?" he asked her back, because it was bugging him ever since she woke up and he just had to find out.

"Not in the slightest, yes all of this is a lot to take in but it's thanks to you that I'm still even alive right now." she answered with a smile that he couldn't see, but he could detect it thanks to the tone of her voice. "And I know that we'll figure the rest of this out together, which will allow us to get to know each other better." she finished while tilting her head up to see the large smile spread across the dragon slayer's face.

"That's a better response than I have any right to hope for." he replied while still smiling down at her.

"Well that's just wrong on so many levels." she stated with a stern look directed at him. "You have just as much right as everyone else to be happy." she declared as they locked eyes again and got lost in them for a little bit.

"So back to some of the things that come along with being the mate of a dragon slayer." stated Natsu with a nervous little chuckle before telling Aries everything that he knew about what could possibly happen to a dragon slayer's mate. Also answering any random question that she had for him and informing her about everything else that happened while she was out. After which they decided to head into town to get something to eat and casually talk to each other. During which Aries became a little self-conscious due to all of the stares they got from all of the citizens as they started to walk back towards Rachel's place afterwards.

"They're just captivated by all of your beautiful features Aries." stated Natsu after picking up on her slight discomfort to all of the attention they were drawing to themselves.

"No they aren't, it's because of how odd I look." she replied while trying to use his body as a shield to block all of the eyes currently on them.

"So what if they think you look odd, people have been saying that about me thanks to my hair color for as long as I can remember. The only thing that should really matter to you is how you feel about yourself, and if there is anything you don't like then there is something you can work to change." he said with a serious expression on his face as they came to a stop. "But if you ask me I think you're perfect just the way you are and wouldn't change a thing." he finished as a blush came rushing to his cheeks before he could try and hide it from the spirit that was now smiling up at him after hearing that last part.

"You're right, I think I'll be fine now." she whispered to herself, forgetting that Natsu could easily hear it.

"Good, so what do you want to do now? And I'm not talking about just heading back to Rachel's and grabbing my things." he clarified to her as they started to walk again with her still holding onto his arm but no longer trying to hide behind him.

"I think it would probably be smart for us to head straight to the beach and see if Lucy knows why I can't return to the Spirit Realm." she answered him, no longer caring about all of the people watching the two of them since she knew that the only one that she actually cared about thought she was perfect.

"I take it you probably want to take the train." he stated while turning slightly green just thinking about it.

"Yes, but only because I don't want to be using Lucy's magic any longer than I have to if that's actually what's going on." she said with a little giggle after seeing the queasy look he had at the moment.

"Fine, but this is going to be one of the last times I ever ride one of those death traps." declared the dragon slayer as he threw a fist into the air. Once again causing the spirit to giggle since she knew that this wasn't the first time he made this declaration and it would most likely not be his last.

 **Akane Beach with Erza's training group the next day at noon:**

"I still can't believe he's not here yet." stated Erza with a disgruntled look on her face as she looked out over the beach hoping to spot that pink hair of his that stuck out like a sore thumb.

"Maybe he's just taking a while since he's walking." suggested Happy as he and Lucy walked up to the knight.

"Happy's right, there is no way he would ever take a train if he didn't have to." said Lucy with a small smile as she thought back to how hard it was to get the dragon slayer onto them for their jobs.

"I didn't even think about that." replied Erza as continued to look for him. "But even still, he should have known that I expected him to be here by now." she finished with a slightly upset look that spelt trouble for their pink haired friend.

"Flame Brain might be still trying to work through whatever the hell that was he showed off at the guild." stated Gray as he joined the small group forming on the beach.

"It usually only takes him a day to get back to normal." she said as if Gray should have known that as well.

"But whatever Natsu is going through right now isn't like all of those other times Erza." chimed in Levy as she and the rest of Team Shadowgear joined them.

"I'll say, I've never seen him so angry before." pointed out Jet with a worried look coming over his face as he remembered back to the incident.

"Not to mention what he said he wanted to do to those bastards." said Droy before going back to stuffing his face with more food as he is now often seen doing.

"All of that is true, but I have faith that he'll pull through like he always does. And you all need to remember that just because he admitted to wanting to do those things to those dark mages doesn't change who he is, he didn't actually do any of it." said Erza while giving them all a stern glare to show that she was serious about what she just said.

"We know that Erza, and it won't change how any of us look at him." replied Wendy with a bright smile, slightly surprising a few of them since they didn't even realize that she and Carla were there.

"She's right Erza, no matter what Ash for Breath might say or do he'll always be the same idiot that we all care about." stated Gray not realizing what he just admitted to.

"Juvia only wishes that her Gray-sama would admit his feelings for Juvia like that." said the water mage as she got lost in another daydream of her own, as the rest of the group started to snicker at Gray now trying to take back what he just said about Natsu.

"I seriously don't care what happens to that weak excuse for a fire mage at all." he declared while glaring at his friends that were still amused by his childish antics.

"Whatever you say Gray, but I've known for a long time now that the two of you are best friends that can't admit it for some reason." said Erza with a smug grin spread across her lips.

"Just like you and Mira." he said back, expecting Erza to start denying it or at least get upset. But instead of either of those two things happening the scarlet haired knight had a thoughtful expression come over her face for a few long moments.

"I guess you're right about that Gray." she replied with a small smile.

"He's here now." declared Wendy with a huge smile as she pointed further down the beach. Causing all of them to look but not see the man they were all looking for.

"I don't see him." stated Droy as he and a few others were now squinting their eyes in the hopes of spotting him.

"You wouldn't because Wendy obviously picked up his scent with her nose." explained Carla as she rolled her eyes at the rest of them.

"How much longer will it take until he gets here? Because I've got a few questions that he needs to answer." asked Lucy with a look that slightly scared the younger girl.

"You should be able to see him any minute now." answered Wendy in a shy tone as she backed away from the blonde, slightly afraid of what she planned to do once Natsu met up with them. And so they all waited in silence until a distinctive mop of pink hair could be seen in the distance, but what confused most of them was that here were two of them.

"Who in the world is with him?" asked Jet, who was now wondering if he should just run over there and see for himself.

"It looks like whoever it is, is a woman." stated Droy, causing a few of them to have shocked looks come over their faces.

"There is no way that Flame Brain got a girlfriend before me." declared Gray as he tried to see if Droy was correct about the unknown person being a woman.

"Juvia could help you out with that Gray-sama." said Juvia with a hopeful smile spread across her face as came up to him while nervously fidgeting. But unfortunately it would seem that once again the ice mage wouldn't notice her extremely obvious advances towards him, or if he did he once again chose to just ignore them.

"His excuse for leaving the guild like he did better not be so he could go and met up with some random hussy." hissed out Erza as a look of complete rage came over her face as she clutched her fists in anger.

"It's definitely a woman with him." stated Wendy after taking a large sniff of the air.

"What you dragon slayer's can do with your noses still slightly weirds me out." commented Jet as he gave the sky dragon slayer a strange look.

"Doesn't she look kind of familiar?" asked Levy as the pink haired duo got closer to them with Natsu waving like an idiot at the moment.

"I was thinking the same thing, but I can only ever recall running into two other women that shared his hair color. And neither of them were that tan, also I highly doubt it that either of them would randomly come with Natsu to our scheduled training." answered Erza, who after saying this looked over at Lucy about to ask her what she thoughts were on all of this. But she was surprised to see the blonde quietly crying to herself with her hands covering her mouth as she looked at the woman with Natsu.

"It couldn't be." said the celestial mage as she started to wipe away her tears, which Erza quickly figured out were ones of joy due to Lucy now having a huge smile spread across her face.

"Lucy do you know who's with Natsu?" she asked as everyone else in the group turned to look at the blonde.

"It's Aries." responded Lucy as with each passing second she became more and more certain that it was the spirit she didn't know if she would ever get to see again.

"Aries, as in the spirit that is always apologizing and was as white her dress?" asked Gray, clearly not believing that the woman with Natsu could be the one he thought he heard Lucy say it was.

"Yes Gray, that spirit." she replied with her smile getting bigger. "I don't know why she looks so different now, but I'm positive that it's her." she finished while starting to walk towards the approaching duo.

"Hi guys!" called out Natsu with his usual grin as his friends started to come towards him and Aries. "You'll never guess who I've brought with me." he said while giving his companion a reassuring smile that he could tell eased the woman's nervousness about reuniting with Lucy and everyone else.

"Natsu you sure as hell have a lot of explaining to do." shouted the blonde celestial mage as they were only about fifty yards apart. But before any of them could take another step a completely unexpected thing happened, which was the Spirit King all of a sudden appearing before them with a displeased look on his as he looked the pink haired duo.

"Is that who I think it is?" asked Happy with a stunned look on his face as he tapped Lucy's leg as he talked.

"The Spirit King." she replied in a shocked tone, knowing that it was almost unheard of him to ever appear make an appearance like he did last time with her and Loke. And because of this fact she was starting to grow concerned as to the reason he was doing it again, knowing that it most likely had to do with the two that just arrived before him.

"The two of you are coming with me." said the Spirit King as he pointed to Natsu and Aries who didn't seem too surprised when he said this. The next thing the rest of them knew the Spirit King and the other two were gone before they could even react.

"What the hell just happened?" asked Gray as he turned to their only celestial mage for an answer.

"I honestly don't know, the only other time I've ever seen him was when I helped Loke get back into the spirit realm." she answered with a clearly worried expression coming over her face that used to look so happy just seconds ago.

"He took Natsu with him, has something like that ever happened before?" asked Erza now also having a concerned look on her usually stoic face.

"The only other time something like this has happened as far as I know was when Natsu grabbed onto Virgo during their fight and was only there for a few seconds at most." she replied while looking in disbelief at the spot that used to have Natsu and Aries standing together.

"Of course he would be the only one to do something like that." stated Carla, surprisingly trying to lighten up the mood but failing at it.

"Do you think he'll be fine?" asked Wendy as she looked to Erza and Lucy for an answer. Both of whom didn't seem confident enough to give the young dragon slayer a definitive answer that they also believed.

"This is Natsu we're talking about here, of course he's going to be fine Wendy." answered Levy with a bright smile spread across her lips.

"And didn't you just say that he was the only person that you know of who's been to their world already." stated Jet, picking up on what Levy was trying to do.

"You're right Jet, and he was with Aries before all of this so maybe this was all planned out in advance." suggested Dory with a smile of his own.

"If it was then he's a bigger idiot than I thought he was because all it did was make an already confusing situation worse." mumbled Gray as he turned away and started to walk away.

"Where do you think you're going Gray?" asked Erza as the ice mage continued to walk away from them.

"Back to training since that is the whole reason we came out here, isn't it?" he asked back not even waiting for an answer from her.

"But what about Natsu?" she asked while turning to the rest of them with a questioning look on her face.

"Couldn't we just ask one of your other spirits what's going on?" suggested Juvia as she looked at her self-proclaimed love rival.

"It couldn't hurt to try I guess." replied Lucy in an uncertain tone. " **OPEN GATE OF THE GOAT: CAPRICORN!** " she called out while swiping his key through the air.

"How may I be of assistance to you, Ms. Lucy?" he asked while doing a quick bow.

"I'd like to know exactly what is happening with Natsu and Aries right now in the spirit realm?" she asked back with a steely stare sent the spirit's way.

"Sorry Ms. Lucy but I'm fairly certain that I won't be able to tell you everything that you want to know." he answered with a slight frown.

"Then what can you tell us?" asked Erza before anyone else could.

"That currently whatever is happening with those two is completely unheard of. To the point that the Spirit King hasn't even told all of the other twelve Zodiac spirits what is actually going on. But you need to have faith that he'll do whatever is best for the spirit world." replied Capricorn with a confident look displayed for all of them to see.

"But what about what's best for our world?" she asked him back; concerned that Natsu might do something extremely stupid while he's over there and not ever come back.

"Our worlds are intertwined with each other Ms. Scarlet in more ways than you might think. So whatever the Spirit King decides to do with the both of them will be the best for both of our worlds. Now as I said before please have faith that he knows what he's doing." he explained with a slight smile.

"How can I have faith in someone who was going to let Loke die because he was only trying to help out a fellow spirit? Or how the Spirit King sat by and did nothing when you were possessed for all those years?" asked Lucy as she glared at her own spirit like none of them have ever seen her do before.

"Because he knew all along that you would help each of us out of those situations Ms. Lucy." he answered without thinking about it for a second. "And if you don't have faith in the Spirit King then at least have faith in your friends, who have never let you down before up till now, have they?" he asked with a knowing look.

"Fine, but if you learn anything else about what's going on I expect you to tell me right away." she said with a determined expression on her face as she and Capricorn looked at each other.

"As you command Ms. Lucy, and if you want I could continue to help you with your training since I'm already here." he offered with a small smile on his face as Lucy nodded and the two of them headed off to start training on their own.

"I guess the rest of us should probably get back to training as well." stated Erza as she looked that the rest of their group.

"When do you think Natsu will come back?" asked Wendy as the rest of them started to head off to do their own thing.

"I don't know, but I'm confident that he'll make a big entrance like he usually does." she replied with a faint smirk gracing her lips as she too left to start training.

 **Spirit Realm Throne Room:**

"For crying out loud are you going to start saying something, or are you just going stare at us the whole day?" Natsu asked loudly while glaring up at the Spirit King.

"Quiet Natsu, you're in the presence of the Spirit King." Aries whispered to him in a frightened tone, not being able to handle the intense stare that her ruler was giving them currently.

"I don't care who the hell he is, I'm not going to sit here for hours in silence after he randomly grabs the two of us and takes us to his world." he shouted back while still glaring at the large mustached spirit watching them.

"It's only been a few minutes Natsu." she replied with a faint smile. "And please be respectful while we're in his presence." she finished remembering their current situation.

"I'll do that once he starts telling us what the hell is going on right now. Also he just had to do this when I finally figured out how I was going to explain everything that's happened over the last few days to all of them." he stated while no longer glaring at the Spirit King and instead giving her a confident grin.

"And how exactly were you going to do that?" she asked him, since during their trip they had yet to come up with a good way to accomplish that.

"I was going to have you do it of course." he answered with a toothy grin as a look of complete and utter disbelief came over her face.

"That would have only made things worse since I still don't know exactly what is all going on." she pointed out while giving her form of a glare that the dragon slayer enjoyed looking at after getting her to use it the other day on him.

"You're probably right, but it would at least get some of the attention off of me." he replied with a little chuckle.

"Only for a few seconds max." she stated while rolling her eyes at him and how terrible that idea of his was.

"And during that time I'd come up with something else." he said with a confident smirk spread across his lips.

"So it's like I thought." said the Spirit King, causing the only other two occupants in the room to look at him. "You claimed her as your mate, something that has never been done before by one of your kind throughout our kind's entire history." he continued in his voice that commanded respect just from hearing it.

"Yes I did, it was the only way that I could save her." replied Natsu in his normal voice, no longer glaring up at him since they seemed like they would actually be talking with each other now.

"And for that I'm extremely grateful, but you have no idea what might happen because of you saving her life in the manner that you did." he stated with a stern expression on his face as he looked at the two of them. "You've put me in a very difficult position dragon slayer, one that I wished I would never have to be in." he continued with a tired sigh escaping his lips.

"And what position exactly is that?" Natsu asked already having a slightly bad feeling about what he and Aries were going to hear next.

"The union between both of our kinds, which is even more unheard of since you aren't completely human." answered the Spirit King with a frown. "Centuries ago it was established that spirits wouldn't be allowed to form any sort of relationship like this for obvious reason." he continued only for Natsu to cut him off.

"First off Aries is only my mate as of right now and she has yet to decide if I'll become hers, and please explain to me how her being in a relationship with a human is so bad? Because I apparently don't know the reasons why that is so bad." he asked, choosing to ignore the comment about him not being just human. Something that he and all of the other dragon slayers knew, but they didn't really like to think about it since it only made them feel even more out of place than they already did sometimes.

"Is that true my old friend?" asked the Spirit King as he looked down at the female spirit nervously standing before him.

"Yes it is." she replied nervously as she twiddled her fingers together, unable to look at him directly.

"Can you confidently tell me right now that you won't ever develop any feelings for this dragon slayer? Because if you can then we can end all of this right now." he asked, ignoring the sneer and slightly hurt look that came over the face of the pink haired male also in the room.

Hearing this caused the nervous spirit to come to a complete stop and start thinking if she could actually answer that question with one hundred percent certainty. She wanted to say yes so that all of this could be resolved quickly and peacefully, but as she looked over at the man responsible for her still being alive. She knew right then and there that she couldn't promise something like that, especially after recalling how she had felt while being with him since she regained consciousness.

"I can't promise that won't happen." she mumbled, once again having a blush come rushing to her cheeks. She also just barely picked up on the faint smile that came over Natsu's face at hearing her answer.

"That is what I was afraid of, and let me answer your other question dragon slayer before you start arguing with me." replied the Spirit King, effectively stopping Natsu before he could even open his mouth like he intended. "The main reason we have this rule is because a spirit in love with a human or someone like you can no longer be counted on to fulfill their duties like they once were." he stated with a frown once again coming over his face.

"That's bullshit, I know for a fact that Aries can still do everything that she did for Lucy before, even if she eventually chooses me as her mate." declared Natsu with a slight edge to his voice.

"That is where you're wrong dragon slayer." he said only to get cut off again.

"My name is Natsu Dragneel for crying out loud so please stop calling me dragon slayer." snapped Natsu since it felt as if the Spirit King thought less of him because of him being one.

"I know exactly who you are Natsu Dragneel, and I would suggest that you remember who it is you're dealing with right now." he responded in a booming voice as he let out his power, thinking that he could frighten the boy into listening to him and getting him to stop interrupting like he was so far. But to his surprise it didn't seem to have the results he hoped for, since Natsu instead started to let his own magic out to counteract it. This caused the Spirit King to become even more shocked as he felt something coming from the dragon slayer that he never expected to considering who he was.

"You're the freaking king of all spirits big whoop dee doo, because so far all I'm seeing is someone that did nothing to help one of his supposed friends when they were dying. That in itself is enough for me to not like you, and to make it even easier for me to know that I don't like you. You are now saying that Aries isn't free to make her own choice in all of this." spat out Natsu as golden flames started to coat his whole body due to how upset he currently was. Aries on the other hand had a look of horror on her face as she looked at him, because no one ever talked to the Spirit King like he just did.

As for the Spirit King, rather than having an upset expression like the other two expected him to have after Natsu's little outburst, all he had was a quizzical look spread across his face as he inspected the dragon slayer. Currently the he was trying to figure out exactly how the mage before him came into possession of the magic he was now displaying as if it was always his to use. The only explanation that made any sense at all was that it somehow merged with his fire dragon slayer magic when he claimed Aries as his mate before she passed on to the afterlife. Either way this slightly changed things and could possibly turn this terrible situation into one that they all could agree on, but before he did that he needed to confirm a few things about Natsu.

"I can see how you might think that from your point of view Natsu Dragneel, but that's only because of how small your perspective is on the greater scheme of everything else going on around you. So if you would just calm down we can discuss all of this like adults and not lash out like spoiled children." stated the Spirit King as he actually took a seat on his throne, motioning for them to also take seats in the only other furniture in the room. They both did, albeit slightly reluctant in Natsu's case who probably only did it to prove to the Spirit King that he wasn't a spoiled brat like he just said.

"Good, and as I was trying to say before you so rudely interrupted me, there is a reason for this unspoken rule of ours." he started, ignoring the scoff Natsu made in response. "A spirit in love would no longer be loyal to their Master if they were put into a compromised position. A position such as where they have to decide between helping out their Master or the one that they love, no matter what choice they make it would be devastating to them. And I'm guessing that even you can see how this would be a problem for our kind." he explained, knowing that Natsu was having trouble with trying to come up with a solution to this if you went by the strained expression he currently had.

"Also I would never force her or any of my other subjects into doing something that they didn't agree to, which is why forming a contract is so important to us. Unfortunately you've already learned that sometimes those very same contracts intended to protect my friends can be used incorrectly to force them to do terrible things on the behalf of their Masters." he continued to explain, noticing the dragon slayer making an upset expression as he said this. "And the very first contract a spirit must make before even venturing into your realm is with me. One that happens to explicitly prohibit this situation that we're currently in and a few other things that aren't relevant right now." he finished watching as a shocked look came over the boy's face.

"Is this true Aries?" asked Natsu as he looked over at her and got a sad nod from the spirit. "Fine then, Aries might eventually break your stupid contract later on. So what is the punishment for it?" he asked looking back up at the Spirit King with a determined look in his eyes.

"For breaking their contract with me they are banished from the spirit realm to never return." he answered with a sad frown, but was stunned when Natsu had a smile spread across his mug.

"Is that all, I was really starting to get worried there for a second." replied Natsu with a little chuckle.

"Natsu you don't understand how bad that is for us spirits, without being able to return to the spirit realm we will eventually die." explained Aries with a sad and broken look on her face as they locked eyes.

"What are you talking about? Didn't Loke do something like this for a while, and now that I'm thinking about it he was also with plenty of women during that time." he asked while looking up at the Spirit King as if he was doing this only because of him being a dragon slayer.

"My old friend was able to do whatever he pleased at that time since he was already banished from my realm." answered the Spirit King.

"And Loke was only able to survive that long thanks to how strong he is, I on the other hand will probably only last about a month on my own." she stated almost in tears, knowing that this was soon to be her fate in a few moments.

"You have to be kidding me, so breaking this stupid rule of yours is pretty much a death sentence?" he asked as the two spirits nodded back to him. "That is so fucking stupid I don't even know where to start. Don't worry Aries, Lucy and I will figure out how to help you through this just like she did with Loke." he said while bringing the trembling spirit in for a hug.

"Sorry Natsu but that won't be happening this time for a few reasons." replied the Spirit King with a stoic expression now on display.

"Like what?" he asked back angrily while trying to keep his magic under control, something that was quite difficult for him to do considering how stupid he thought all of this was.

"The first reason is that I won't allow her back like I did last time with our mutual friend, because unlike with him she is directly responsible for all of this happening. And the final reason is that she no longer has a Master that could possibly help her by giving her some of their magic." he explained with the same expression as before. If Natsu looked pissed before, it was nothing compared to how he looked now as he glared up at the Spirit King. The one responsible for causing Aries to start crying at finding out that she was no longer one of Lucy's spirits, making the pink haired dragon slayer livid.

"This time you're the one that is completely wrong you worthless king!" spat out Natsu as his golden flames once again sprung up around him, as he continued to hold a sobbing Aries. "She had nothing to do with me claiming her as my mate, so you have no right to punish her for something that I did without her consent. And I also know that Lucy would never willingly give up Aries as one of her Spirits. All of whom she considers her friends and family." he declared with such intensity and conviction that it sparked up a little flame of hope in the spirit that believed she was finished.

"Unfortunately that still doesn't change her current situation since she admitted that she might eventually have feelings for you. And her contract with her old Master was most definitely terminated since Ms. Heartfilia no longer has her key." replied the Spirit King with a stern glare sent back at the dragon slayer glaring up at him.

"If she doesn't have a Master any more than what's the harm in her possibly choosing me as her mate?" he asked with a sneer.

"There isn't one, after I send you both back she will no longer be able to ever return to our realm again." answered the Spirit King with a frown.

"Gaahhh, this is so fucking stupid. How are you fine with sending her away knowing that she'll eventually die?" he asked while reluctantly letting go of Aries and standing up so he could do something. What he planned to do even he still didn't know what it might be, but whatever he decided to do in the next few minutes he would now be able to do accomplish since he was no longer holding Aries.

"It's fine Natsu, there's nothing that either of us can do about it." replied Aries as she rubbed away some of the tears from her eyes.

"No it isn't fine Aries, I didn't save you only to sit back and watch you die over something that is so fucking ridiculous and moronic." declared Natsu as his magic started to flare up to even greater heights than before while his head was slightly turned down so neither of the spirits could see his face. "If you think I'll just sit by and let her die then you are sorely mistaken Mr. Spirit King." he said with a crazed grin spread across his lips before lunging at the Spirit King.

This was something that the Spirit King was confident was going to happen and easily blocked the flaming fist coming at him with his sword. But what he and Aries weren't expecting was the large explosion that resulted after the hit, which actually caused the Spirit King to slide back a few feet in his throne that he was still sitting in. And before he could even get up Natsu was already on him trying to land a blow with his new golden flames that seemed to have an immense amount of power behind them.

"Are you sure that you want to do this dragon slayer?" asked the Spirit King after batting Natsu away with the side of his sword during their last clash.

"I've never been surer of anything in my entire life, especially if this is the only way for me to prevent Aries from dying. And I told you to stop calling me that. **FIRE DRAGON'S ROAR!** " he bellowed back and ending their little chat by sending a large stream of golden flames from his mouth towards the huge spirit. That then collided with the spirit and actually engulfed him, causing Aries to look on in awe that Natsu was literally fighting the Spirit King for her sake.

"So be it, but I do hope you realize that all this means is that you're forfeiting your life." replied the Spirit King as he emerged from the flames completely unscathed and swatted Natsu into a wall. Leaving a small crater where the dragon slayer's body made impact, only for him to then fall to the floor feeling some of the worst pain in his entire life as he got back up.

"We'll see about that you Old Mustached Freak." coughed out Natsu, causing a little blood to leak out onto his lower lip that he instantly wiped away with the back of his forearm. And he once again charged at the Spirit King with a grin spread across his lips making Aries watch nervously from the sidelines. She did exactly that for the next five minutes, and by the end of it Natsu was barely able to stand while the Spirit King on the other hand remained completely unscathed.

"Please just stop Natsu, I don't want you to die for me!" called out Aries now in tears as she looked at his battered body.

"Sorry Aries but I can't do that." he replied while holding his side and slowly staggering towards his opponent.

"You had to know you didn't even stand a chance against me while we were in my own domain." said the Spirit King as he watched the dragon slayer once again summon his golden flames and lunged at him.

"My opponents always say something similar to that before I beat them." he shouted back before being slammed into the ground by the Spirit King. Who then held Natsu down with his foot as he brought his sword right above the head of the mage he easily had pinned to the floor.

"Please stop, I'll accept my punishment just please don't kill him!" screamed out Aries as she tried to get to the two of them but couldn't. Thanks to a barrier that the Spirit King put up so she wouldn't be able to interfere with their little battle.

"It would seem that this fight isn't going to be one of those." he said while looking down at Natsu who had a slight smile spread across his lips. "But I am a little curious as to why you are smiling during your last moments among the living." he stated with an intrigued look gracing his usually stoic face.

"Why wouldn't I smile at the end, I've had a pretty good life if you ask me. And more importantly if you finish me off here than there is no reason for you to banish Aries anymore. So I can die happy knowing that I was at least able to save her from the mess that I got her into." answered Natsu with a smile as he closed his eyes and waited for it to all end. But instead of that happening he felt and heard the Spirit Kings huge sword stab into the ground right next to him, and the next thing he knew he was brought into a tight embrace by someone that definitely wasn't the spirit that he was fighting up till that point.

"What were you thinking?" asked Aries while still hugging him tightly. "Didn't you tell me that the best thing you can do for your friends is to keep living for them?" she asked while slightly pulling away so they could look at each other.

"I did, but this was the only solution that I could think of where you wouldn't die because of me claiming you as my mate." he replied with a little chuckle that caused him to hiss in pain afterwards.

"I'm only alive right now thanks to you doing all of that." she said with a small smile while bringing him back into another hug. And he was more than happy to return it despite the immense pain he was currently in from his severe injuries.

"You are constantly doing the unexpected Natsu Dragneel." commented the Spirit King with a small grin spread across his lips. "Something that I'm confident a few of your old enemies started to despise about you, but I find it quite refreshing." he said with a little chuckle at the end.

"Not really what I expected to hear before I met my end, but I guess it could have been worse." said Natsu as he got Aries to let go of him and started to stagger towards the Spirit King.

"I think you are a little confused, you've just passed my test so you and Aries are both free to do as you please after we discuss a few more things." he replied with a hearty chuckle as the other two froze in disbelief at what they just heard. "But before we do that I think we should probably attend to those wounds of yours." he stated while doing a weird hand gesturing towards Natsu, which at first did nothing. But after a few seconds all of the dragon slayer's wounds started to heal right before their eyes in a matter of seconds as he gave off a golden glow.

"Are you saying that all of this was just a stupid test of yours?" asked Natsu with his head down, clearly not as surprised about his wounds healing so quickly as Aries was at the moment.

"No it wasn't, if you hadn't shown off those golden flames of yours. Either you would be dead right now or my old friend would have been banished to your world to wait out the remainder of her time." he answered with a stoic expression on his face as he looked down at the pink haired mage. "But instead of those two probable outcomes happening you showed to me that you were willing to forfeit your life just to save the life of my old friend's. Something that I wouldn't have believed if I hadn't seen it while also being the one just seconds away from delivering the final blow." he finished with a slight smirk.

"Of course I would sacrifice myself if it was the only possible way to ensure that my mate could continue to live." stated the dragon slayer as he glared up at the Spirit King. "And why in the world did you sound so sure that I wouldn't be willing to do something like that?" he asked in angry tone.

"For reasons that you'll eventually learn of at a later time, when it's more appropriate and I hopefully you'll be able to handle it. So let's instead get to discussing about what the two of you plan to do after all of this, more specifically what you plan to do now that you are part spirit?" he asked while looking down at the shocked dragon slayer. Who completely forgot about his previous question and was now trying to come to grips with what he just heard.

"What kind of sick joke are you pulling here? There is no way that I could be part spirit, I'm already part human and part dragon." replied Natsu as he started to chuckle to himself.

"This isn't a joke Natsu Dragneel." he stated in a loud voice making sure he got the mage's attention. "I don't know how it is even possible, but I can only guess that when you claimed Aries as your mate you also took some of her magic back with you after you gave her some of yours. And because of that you are now part spirit, which is why your flames are now golden." he explained with a grin as an excited look came over Natsu's face.

"So you're saying I'm some sort of Celestial Dragon Slayer now?" asked Natsu as the other two spirits could literally feel the excitement coming off of him.

"That is one way to describe it I guess, but in order to fully understand how much of you has become spirit like we'll have to do a few test. Because so far all I can definitely say is that you're now able to absorb pure celestial magic like you normally do with fire. Which is how I healed your wounds just moments ago." he replied with his grin getting bigger with each passing moment, thanks to how thrilled Natsu was getting.

"Does that mean I'll be able to eat any attack Lucy's spirits can throw at me?" asked the excited pink haired mage that looked ready to start jumping around in joy any second now.

"Thankfully no, and that is because their attacks aren't pure celestial magic and use other elements. But if you required a boost in energy they would all be able to send you pure celestial magic, although it wouldn't be as strong as a normal move of theirs. Which is why most of them don't fight with just that and choose to augment their attacks with whatever magic they are naturally skilled with." elaborated the Spirit King with a little chuckle as he could visibly see Natsu come down a few notches in his excitement.

"Wait a minute, does this mean that Natsu will have to come back here every once in a while or he might die?" asked Aries with a terrified look washing over her beautiful face.

"I don't think so since he's not just a spirit and is more of a hybrid of some sort. Actually I don't even know if he'll be able to come here on his own at all like other spirits." answered the Spirit King with a thoughtful expression as he stroked his mustache. "And if that is the case, then it would mean that he doesn't technically need a key or to from a contract with me like all spirits that plan to go to his realm do." he continued to say more to himself than to the other two.

"Would that mean he isn't allowed to come here if a different spirit brought him?" she asked, with a slight blush that she hoped the two males wouldn't notice.

"No my old friend, I'm confident that after our conversation here we'll all be on friendly terms with each other. And he'll be an honored guest whenever he does decide to drop by." he replied while not even looking down at her.

"So if I'm understanding this correctly, I'm now a spirit but also I'm not since I most likely won't be able to do everything that they can usually do?" asked Natsu as he looked back and forth between the two of them, getting a nod of agreement out of the both of them. "Okay, but what about Aries' new Master, wasn't her not being able to be absolutely loyal to whomever it is the reason for us even starting all of this?" he asked while looking up at the Spirit King with an eyebrow raised.

"That it is, but given the unprecedented circumstances of this entire situation her key is no longer in possession of her old Master. And has more than likely been transferred to someone that she would like to form a new contract with." replied the Spirit King with a knowing look coming over his face.

"Do you know who has it, because there is no way in hell I'm letting her serve under some weirdo or creep." declared Natsu with a determined look now prominently on display on his face.

"I have a fairly good idea as to who it might be." said the Spirit King while looking down at Aries with a grin. And at first she didn't know why he was looking at her like that, but it quickly dawned on her who she might want to form a contract with. A certain someone that can now also use celestial magic, meaning that it was possible for him to actually become her Master and possibly so much more.

"Then why aren't you telling me?" he asked with a slightly upset look coming over his face. "Oh come on, I only just want to make sure that whoever it is will treat Aries like she deserves to be treated." he said, thinking that he wasn't being told so he wouldn't go off and fight Aries' new Master.

"I'm positive that won't be a problem." chuckled the Spirit King as he noticed Aries occasionally glancing over at the dragon slayer with an enormous blush.

"Aries do you have any idea who might have your key besides Lucy?" he asked while turning to look at her. Being slightly caught off guard at how pink her face was as she nervously fidgeted around on her feet. "Aries is something wrong?" he asked with a concerned voice as he walked towards her.

"Nothing's wrong Natsu." she replied in a shy tone that she used to always talk in before Natsu claimed her. "I think you might be the person that has my key." she said while nervously twirling the tips of her pointer fingers around each other.

"Me?" he asked while pointing to himself as the two spirits nodded yes. "But how is that possible? I'm not even a celestial mage, and didn't you just say that I myself was a spirit? So how in the world could I have her key, unless this is something that I didn't know about spirits?" he asked with an extremely confused expression on his mug.

"Yes Natsu, I also believe that you are in possession of my friend's key and just don't know it yet. And no Spirits can't have another Spirit's key, but since you're not just a spirit that doesn't apply to you." explained the Spirit King with a small smile spread across his face. "But I can understand your confusion since all of this is new to me as well."

"No kidding, one second you're telling me that I'm now part spirit only for a second later to then tell me that I might be Aries' new Master." he said while running a hand through his hair and letting out a tired sigh.

"If you don't want to be my Master that's okay Natsu." mumbled Aries while looking down at her feet, trying to hide the hurt look she knew she had on right now.

"I didn't mean to imply that at all Aries." he replied quickly, not wanting her to think for a second that she wasn't good enough for him for some reason. "I just didn't expect any of this to happen. And I also didn't want you to feel even more pressure that you need to like me the same way that I like you." he explained with a slight blush gracing his cheeks.

"Do you really mean that?" she asked while bringing her head back up so that they were looking each other in the eyes.

"Absolutely, so if I do happen to have your key we need to make a unique contract that will work with our current situation." he answered while giving her one of his signature grins. This caused Aries to smile back at him and step forward to give him a hug, which he was more than happy to reciprocate.

"So do you have it on you?" asked the Spirit King with a little chuckle and grin since it seemed like the two of them somehow completely forgot about him and only had eyes for each other at the moment. This caused the two to quickly separate and Natsu to start frantically searching his person.

"I don't know how I would even…" started Natsu only to stop mid-sentence and pull out a golden key that belonged to the pink haired spirit standing beside him. "Got it without noticing, but I guess that is exactly what happened." he finished while looking at the key now resting on the palm of his hand.

"It would seem that you have a new Master my old friend. One that has already proven he'll go to the ends of the world to make sure that you're happy and completely taken care of." he said with a smile, only for it to change into one of complete shock as Natsu put her key between his palms that were now covered in his golden flames. The two spirits watched in horror as he evaporated the key and turned back to them with a huge grin spread across his smug face.

"Now she doesn't have a master and can do whatever she wants." stated Natsu as he dusted the ashes off of his hands. Only now just realizing the looks that the two spirits were giving him, but before he could explain himself better he felt a burning sensation on his chest right above his heart. And the sensation was enough to actually get him to hiss out in pain as he pulled back his vest to see what was responsible for his current state.

What the three saw once Natsu removed his vest shocked even the Spirit King. Because now on the dragon slayer's left pectoral just above his heart was a tattoo that wasn't there seconds ago. It was a golden key with a ram's head for the handle out lined in black with a red background of flames. All of them quickly came to the same conclusion as to the meaning behind this new tattoo of his, which made him once again even more interesting than he already was in the eyes of the Spirit King.

"It would seem that even you aren't able to get out of this one." chuckled the Spirit King as dragon slayer and other spirit now seemed unable to look at each other anymore. So with another chuckle he decided that now was as good as any other time to see if Natsu was interested with a certain proposal he had. "Seeing as how all of this is extremely new for you Natsu, what would you say to staying here for a while and training with this new power of yours?" he asked with a grin, already having a good idea what Natsu's answer was going to be.

"Hell yeah I would!" cheered the dragon slayer, only to randomly stop in his little celebration once he remembered something important. "But unfortunately I can't since everyone else at the beach is waiting for me to come back and train with them." he said with a conflicted look on his face.

"I would be personally train you for most of your time here, that is if you agreed to stay here during the time that you would have trained with them." stated the Spirit King with a stoic expression taking over his face once again.

"That's extremely tempting, but I really think I should probably go back to be with my friends." he replied with a faint smile as he rubbed the back of his head.

"What if I told you that I could make it where the three months on your world would come out to be two full years of training here?" asked the Spirit King with a grin slowly spreading across his lips as he watched Natsu think it over. "And I would also have Capricorn inform the rest of your friends that you'll be training with us here until the beginning of the Grand Magic Games. I think that is what you and your friends are training for right?" he asked still grinning.

"If you can do all of that then you've got yourself a deal." declared Natsu as he smiled up at the Spirit King. "And I'd have to be a complete idiot to pass up an opportunity like that, with this I'll easily pass Gray and maybe even Erza." he finished with a determined look in his eyes.

"Then it's settled, you and Aries will start training first thing tomorrow morning." said the Spirit King as he smiled down at the two of them.

"I'm going to be training too?" asked Aries in slight shock at this turn of events.

"Of course you are my old friend, you wouldn't want your new Master and future mate to leave you behind now would you?" he asked with a sly grin as Aries turned the same color as her hair in embarrassment.

"Don't listen to him Aries, I'm fairly sure he's just another old pervert like Gramps." said Natsu with a warm smile sent her way. "And just so you know I would never leave you behind, but I do think that the two of us training together might be a lot of fun." he finished while holding his hand out for her to take. Aries looked at his hand held out to her for a second before looking up at the his smiling face, which was all she needed to see for her to know that she wouldn't regret this decision. So with a wide smile spread across her face she took his hand and she proceeded to lead him out of the throne room and give him a tour of the area since she already knew it quite well.

 **End of Chapter**

 **Author's Notes:**

 **Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed it. So first off I know that isn't how time apparently works in the spirit realm and is actually the exact opposite to an even greater degree. But for me at least that doesn't really make sense, since if a spirit got severely hurt then it would make sense to me at least for Lucy to not be able to call on them for an extremely long time so that they could heal properly. So going off that train of thought I decided to switch it around and have it so Natsu can get some intense training while everyone else does the same but to a lesser degree. Since I also don't think unlocking second origin wouldn't be enough to make up for seven years of everyone else training, but throw in three months of intense training as well and then just maybe they could catch back up. Well that's enough of that so as always feel free to leave a review or PM and I'll get back to you as soon as I can.**

 **Oh and if you would like me to update faster or possibly start a new story I have information about my page that I set up on my profile page.**

 **Until the next Chapter**

 **Digem Out!**


	4. A New Salamander

Ch 4: A New Salamander

 **June 30th Honeybone Lodge:**

"That Flaming Moron is going to get us disqualified before we even get the chance to participate!" shouted out Gray in an angry tone while he ran both of his hands through his hair. He looked extremely pissed off to the untrained eye, but most of the Fairy Tail members in the inn could easily see that he was only trying to hide his concern for the dragon slayer.

"Settle down Gray, this is exactly why they let us have a substitute member for these games." replied Makarov before downing the rest of his beer and signaling for a refill as he started to laugh with Macao and Wakaba about their earlier conversation.

"But are you sure that I'm the best candidate for that?" asked Wendy in a timid voice, still wondering why Makarov picked her when there were plenty of stronger members in the guild. Such as the two other dragon slayers that none of them have yet to see since arriving at the inn earlier in the day.

"The Master knows what he's doing, Wendy. And don't sell yourself short, I know that Natsu would be the first to say that you're one of the strongest people he's ever met." stated Erza with a warm smile sent the sky maiden's way, who's face instantly started to turn pink and couldn't say anything back to her.

"Okay, that's It!" declared Gray as he got up and headed over to the two with a determined look in his eyes. "What the hell is going on here? Why in the world are you not freaking out about Flame Brain being late like you usually would in a situation like this?" he asked while pointing at the scarlet haired knight. Something that he usually would have never dared to do in fear of possibly losing his finger in said woman's wrath that could appear at a moment's notice.

"I'd suggest you pull back that finger of yours Gray, unless you want to lose it that is." she growled back at him while looking at the finger that was just an inch away from touching her breastplate.

"Glad to see that you're still the same Erza I've known for most of my life." he mumbled back as he pulled back his finger. But he still remained in her close proximity with a determined expression on his visage, clearly wanting to find out if she knew something that he didn't.

"Of course I am, and it's because of that, I know Natsu will be back in time for whatever the first event of these games will be. He promised he would and everyone should know how seriously he takes his promises." she replied while turning away from the ice mage and heading to the bar.

"Yes I know that, but he also has an uncanny ability to get into trouble whenever he's by himself." he stated with what the guild knew as his concerned face.

"He's not alone, Natsu is with Aries and the rest of the spirits." chimed in Lucy from her spot next to Erza at the bar.

"And that doesn't make you even more concerned about Ash for Breath? Especially after none of your spirits would tell you anything other than that he was going to be training in the Spirit Realm until the beginning of the Grand Magic Games." asked Gray while giving the celestial mage an incredulous look.

"I'll admit that made me even more concerned for him, but like Erza said, he promised he'd be back for the games. And I believe that is exactly what Natsu will do, probably showing up the last possible second if we're going to be honest." she said with a little growl towards the end.

"But he never promised that!" Gray pointed out, only for the two women to turn towards him with deadly glares set solely on him. "He didn't, and both of you know it, neither of you heard him actually say it since none of us have spoken with the Moron since he stormed out that day. All we've gotten was that letter he sent us to let us know that we didn't need to worry about him and that he claimed he'd be back for these games." he quickly explained in the hopes that neither of them would hit him.

"And that's all he needed to do for me to have faith in him and believe that he'll do as he said." replied Erza while turning away from him and going back to the menu she was looking at earlier.

"Me too, ever since I joined the guild, Natsu has never once not showed up when we needed him like we do now." stated Lucy as she got up and headed towards the door.

"Where are you going?" asked Levy, knowing that Natsu's surprise disappearance and strange behavior before was harder on Lucy than anyone else. The celestial mage not only lost one of her cherished spirits that day, but her best friend and partner wasn't there like he usually would have been.

"I'm just going to tour the city for a little bit." was her reply as she continued to the exit.

"Just make sure you're back here before midnight." stated Erza as she gave her friend's retreating figure a stern look.

"Got it." she said before disappearing through the doors while giving a quick wave to the rest of them.

"Hold up Lucy, I'm coming with you!" shouted Levy as she shot from her booth and chased after her friend.

"Do you think I should go after her as well?" asked Wendy as she looked over at Carla, who just turned down Happy for who knows what number it was today. This unfortunately left the blue Exceed sulking in the corner mumbling about how he couldn't understand why she didn't want his fish that he was offering her.

"No dear, I'm more than confident that Levy-san should be capable of cheering her up." replied the white Exceed with a bright smile directed at her partner. A partner that she was still amazed at how caring and considerate the young dragon slayer could be with everyone she would meet.

"Okay… Then should we go and look at the gardens like we talked about earlier?" she asked with an excited look coming over her adorable face.

"Sounds like a good idea to me, especially since it will get me away from him." answered Carla while gesturing towards the still sulking Happy.

"Why cruel world, why won't she accept my fish?" Happy shouted dramatically towards the ceiling. Clearly he wasn't having any trouble with his partner's absence when he still had a certain Exceed to woo; also he knew that Natsu would be back like he said he would.

"Carla, that's mean even for you." scolded the youngest dragon slayer of Fairy Tail.

"No it isn't, and besides, this way he won't be worrying about that boorish man you look up to." stated Carla as she took flight to the exit with a smiling Wendy following after her.

"Sounds to me like someone might be warming up to someone's advances." she said with a little giggle.

"Absolutely not, I'm just concerned since he's a member of the guild." replied Carla with a huff and looking in the opposite direction of her partner, who couldn't stop giggling now as they exited the inn and into the streets of Crocus.

"I'm surprised that you didn't remind those two about being back before midnight." said Makarov as he took a seat on the counter next to Erza.

"They both heard me tell Lucy, also they're actually quite responsible, unlike the rest of the guild." stated the scarlet haired knight as she gave the rest of the guild an intimidating glare that caused the entire room to become eerily quiet. "Also, shouldn't it be your responsibility to remind them of such things?" she asked while now directing all of her attention at the elderly guild master.

"There's no need for me when I can count on you doing it, so let's get back to partying!" he cheered back with a wide grin spread across his face, which caused Erza to have a small smile spread across her own.

"We wouldn't be Fairy Tail if we didn't, but I think I'm going to head up to our rooms and prepare for the games." she said to no one in particular as she headed upstairs where most of the rooms were located at in the establishment.

 **Meanwhile in the Spirit Realm:**

On the outer edges of the Spirit King's realm, a place that was rarely visited by any of his subjects or even him for that matter, the distinctive sounds of an ongoing fight could be heard ringing throughout the air. Which was something that has become the norm for over the past two years, all because of a very unexpected person joining their ranks as a Spirit hybrid. Luckily for all of the Spirits it was someone that they all knew with some of them actually knowing him on a personal level thanks to him being the partner of their Master, Lucy Heartfilia.

This person was none other than Natsu Dragneel, the fire dragon slayer of Fairy Tail who once used to be known as the Salamander by the rest of Fiore for his destructive tendencies. But that was over seven years ago, meaning that he was slowly being forgotten by up and coming names in the wizarding world. Something that he honestly didn't care one iota about, that is so long as he could protect those he considered his family which was pretty much everyone in Fairy Tail. And that was the main reason he was currently standing across from the Spirit King with a determined look in his eyes, neither one caring about the complete and utter destruction that surrounded the two of them.

To a person that wasn't familiar with the pink haired mage, they would say that he appears to be pretty much the same as he did three months ago, before he was sucked into the Spirit Realm. The only things that they would be able to point out would be physical changes such as his hair being slightly longer, or that he now was slightly bigger than he was before. Due to the intense training that made the already extremely fit dragon slayer even stronger, but not in the way that Elfman was. No, the muscles that Natsu accumulated during his time in the Spirit Realm were ones that were fine-tuned and kept at a manageable size to make sure they didn't get in his way.

Other than those two things, the only other thing that they could point out being different about him would be that he was currently only wearing a pair of black pants that stopped just after his knees. Of course he still had his scarf, but that was something that never left the dragon slayer's possession so it wasn't something different about him. But for those that have known him and spent enough time with him to realize that there is more to the pyro maniac than how he was usually portrayed in the news. Just one look at his face would be enough for any of them to realize that he was no longer the hyperactive boy that they once knew.

That isn't to say that he didn't still have that mischievous glint in his eyes anymore. It was definitely still there, but along with it was what most would describe as maturity and a sense of seriousness that most would have believed impossible for Natsu to ever achieve. But that could no longer be said since it was only reinforced by his face that matured during his time in the Spirit Realm. His face didn't have that look of innocence that it once did, which was now replaced with a face from someone that has been through a lot in their life. Which is actually what he probably should have always had if you think about everything he's already been through in his life. This only made the fact that he was still able to have that old look of his even more incredible.

"I'm going to finally beat you for once." growled out Natsu as he kept his eyes locked on his opponent while golden flames started to form on his fists.

"We'll see about that my friend." replied the Spirit King with a grin as he brought his sword up and pointed it at the tiny dragon slayer before him. And just like that they both charged at each other with the Spirit King's sword smashing down on the location that once held Natsu. Only for said person to now be sprinting up said blade leaving a golden trail of flames in his wake as he neared his target.

But right before he even got near the sword's guard the Spirit King swung the blade up in a flash, which sent his opponent flying into the air where he was completely vulnerable. "I'm impressed that you've been able to master that new technique of yours my friend. But it still won't be enough to surpass me and my many years of experience." he stated while also at the same time bringing his sword back to deliver a devastating blow to his opponent. And as he went for the final strike he noticed a smug smirk spread across the dragon slayer's face that made him wonder if this was exactly what the boy wanted.

As he thought this he felt an appropriate amount of resistance meet his blade and result with a golden blur shoot away from him and slam into a nearby cliff. The impact was so hard that the small cliff edge then proceeded to crumble and collapse, leaving behind a huge pile of boulders at the bottom of it. The Spirit King was about to see if Natsu was okay after receiving such a hit, but a sharp pain in his right and left wrists made him think otherwise. Especially when he looked down as a large explosion of golden flames erupted from said area and sent his sword flying away from him.

"Now that I've gotten rid of that damn blade of yours we can finally have a real fight." declared Natsu now completely covered in his golden flames and grinning at the Spirit King with a predatory look in his eyes that also had more than just a hint of excitement in them as well.

"Indeed, so shall we continue?" he asked back with an enormous smile spread across his lips as he motioned for the dragon slayer to bring it. This was something that the pink haired mage was more than happy to oblige and then disappeared in a streak of gold. Only for him to reappear behind the large spirit ready to strike him as hard as humanly possible, but instead he was met with what was almost a completely impenetrable wall that was the Spirit King's defensive stance.

"I guess I'm going to have to go all out." mumbled Natsu as he landed a few feet away from the Spirit King.

"You should have known that was the only way for you to ever have a slim chance of actually hitting me my friend." he chuckled out only for him to cut it short as Natsu's power level rose higher than it ever has before.

"Oh I do my friend, which is what I was doing before for most people's definition of going all out. But now I'm truly going to go all out like no one has ever done before." replied Natsu before once again disappearing in a flash of golden flames. But unlike the last time he did it the Spirit King couldn't completely keep up with his new speed and was hit with a strike that sent him skidding back a few feet.

"Interesting indeed my friend, but I hope you realize that you'll only be able to keep that up for so long." he said while now only blocking a fifth of the attacks sent his way, a drastic change from blocking all of them like he's done every other time the two of them have sparred with each other.

"That's all I'll need to win this fight!" shouted Natsu as he continued his assault on the ruler of the Spirit Realm. An assault that lasted for another five whole minutes that finally ended with Natsu passing out from exhaustion after also being hit with a backhand by the Spirit King.

"You did well today my friend… It's been a very long time since anyone has able to actually disarm me and it's been an even longer time since they were then able to actually land an attack on me afterwards. The last person that was able to accomplish such a feat was him, seems fitting that you would also be able to achieve that." said the Spirit King with a smile as he picked up Natsu's unconscious form and the two of them then disappeared.

But the last and probably biggest difference that someone who knew the old Natsu would notice is the extremely large amount of power that he now had. A power that most wouldn't be able to detect, but just one look into those onyx eyes of his and anyone from Fairy Tail would easily be able to see vast amounts of power that no longer remained dormant in their friend. An amount that seemed to keep expanding each passing day and showed no signs of stopping anytime soon, one that he could now access when he deemed necessary.

 **A few hours later:**

"Did I win?" shouted out Natsu as he shot up in his bed. Only for him to then receive a swift smack to the top of his head that sent him back down to his earlier position.

"Of course you didn't!" Aries yelled back at him with an upset expression on her visage. "And even after you went and did something as stupid as trying to use every ounce of magic that you possess." she continued to lecture him as her expression slowly morphed from one of anger to one of concern. An expression that caused the mage currently in the bed to feel like complete shit for being the cause of it. "You do realize that a stunt like that could have actually killed you if you were able to use absolutely everything that you had." she finished now with her head down and almost in tears.

The next thing she knew she was brought into a very familiar hug that she was confident she could no longer live without. "I'm so sorry Aries, at the time I just knew I had to do something unexpected if I hoped to even have any sort of chance at actually beating him. I didn't think about the consequences of my actions and I'm sorry for that, and I promise I'll never do something like that again." he said while hugging her next to his chest as tenderly as possible, making sure she could feel how much she meant to him.

"You know you won't be able to keep that promise." she replied in a cheery voice that caught him completely off guard. Especially if you considered what she was currently saying to him at the moment, which usually would have been spat out with venom rather than what she just did.

"Like hell I won't be able to keep it." he declared as he separated from her just enough so that they could look at each other in the eyes. Natsu once again found himself lost while gazing into those hazel eyes of hers that were like his in the sense that it told anyone that knew her well exactly what she was currently feeling at the moment. And what they usually showed him was happiness, love and an acceptance of him that he soon became dependent on and didn't know what he would do if she ever lost it. Currently he was seeing all of those from her, which just didn't make sense for him, luckily for him see could tell he was still confused as they sat there silently staring into each other's eyes.

"You and I both know that you'll do something as stupid and moronic as that if it means that there is just a sliver of a chance to protect someone you care about." she explained with a small tint of pink appearing on her cheeks. "It's one of the main reasons that I fell in love with you." she mumbled while looking away from him.

Seeing her acting shy like she used to always do before he claimed her as his only mate caused a large grin to slowly spread across Natsu's face. One that continued to grow as he thought back to the past two years with his mate, that he now knew almost everything there was to know about even though he already knew the important things to begin with. Such as she was loyal to a fault just like how some people might describe him, not only that, but she also wanted nothing more than to see her friends happy. Just another thing that they shared in common, which was actually one of many as hard as that is to believe given how different their personalities were back then. So with a tender hand he grabbed her chin and brought her face so that they were once again looking at each other in the eye, but this time he leaned forward until their lips met. And they remained like that until they broke apart to regain the air that they both needed after sharing such a passionate kiss together.

"Fine, I'll admit that you're correct about that. But what I don't understand is why you still get so shy when it's just the two of us." replied Natsu with one of his signature grins spread across his mug.

"It's just different when we're alone okay." came her shy reply as her blush came back but a darker shade of pink this time.

"I can see that. You made that perfectly clear when it looked like you were ready to kill any other female spirit that could be slightly interested in me." he said with a little chuckle as an embarrassed look came over the spirit's beautiful face.

"I've told you already that it's completely your fault that I acted like that." stated Aries now having a slight pout as Natsu continued to chuckle at her current face that he thought looked cute on her.

"Fine, but I know for a fact that you already know that you're the only woman for me." he said with a sly grin slowly coming over his visage. "I mean even if I wanted to see other women I couldn't because of the whole dragon slayer mating thing." he continued to say only to then be sent flying across the room by an upset spirit.

"Are you trying to say that you wish you could?" she asked while glaring at him with a deadly look that most wouldn't believe possible from the Spirit that used to always apologize after everything she did.

"Far from it Aries, you should know by now that I'm not the type of guy to do something like that." he said while getting back up and coming back over to sit next to her on the bed.

"I do, because you are always concerned about everyone else's happiness over your own." she replied with a sad smile now on display. "It's actually the only reason why I'm your mate right now, if I wasn't about to die that day you could possibly be in a relationship with Lucy or one of the other girls right now." she finished while once again not being able to look at him in the eyes.

"Aries, I need for you to look at me directly in the eyes for what I'm about to say." said Natsu in a completely serious tone that he never used when it was just the two of them. Hearing him use it caused the spirit to reluctantly look up and lock eyes with him as she tried to mentally prepare herself for what he might say next.

"I won't deny that what I did that day isn't how normal dragons or dragon slayers for that matter go about finding their mates. But you should know that also doesn't mean we weren't eventually going to end up together." he started to say while giving her a loving smile.

"But what about Lucy and the rest of the girls at Fairy Tail?" she asked, because she and the rest of the spirits thought that it was only a matter of time before the two of them ended up together.

"What about her? We've only just been friends and that is all it was ever going to be with each other. The same thing can be said about the rest of the women at Fairy Tail." he said in a confident tone while still smiling at her with the same loving smile as before.

"Are you sure, I mean you used to always sneak into her room and sleep with her?" she asked wanting to make sure that he thought this all the way through.

"Absolutely and I'm pretty sure that I would know if she or the rest of them were my mate after spending so much time with all of them." he answered with a little chuckle only to then have a thoughtful look come over his face. "As for the whole sleeping with her thing, I guess that honestly started out as a way to annoy her and she also had a really comfy bed. But now that I'm thinking about it I might have been doing that subconsciously so I could be closer to you." he finished with a smirk as Aries' eyes shot wide open after he said that.

"How in the world do you figure that?" she asked in a shocked tone.

"Well if you go off of the assumption that you were always going to be my mate it actually makes a lot of sense. Just think about it, the only way for me to ever actually have any chance of being around you would be if I was with Lucy. So to maximize the time of us seeing each other and interacting with each other as well, I would of course spend every moment with Lucy that I can." he explained while nodding his head at his own genius.

"Natsu… I don't even… That's one of the nicest things…" she started to say with a little difficulty only for him to cut her off.

"Of course we'll never be able to figure out one way or another if any of that is true." he stated with a little smirk as she started to hit his shoulder with her fists.

"You're nothing but a big jerk sometimes!" yelled Aries with a slight smile spreading across her lips.

"One that you still love?" he asked her back with a mischievous grin.

"Yes, from now until the end of time." she replied no longer hitting him and enjoying the loving embrace that he once again wrapped her up in as she was now positioned on his lap.

"I really like the sound of that, probably because I don't have a choice anymore about loving you with all my heart for the rest of my life." he chuckled and was promptly rewarded with an elbow to his ribs.

"You know you don't have to phrase it that way." she stated while giving him a playful glare.

"I do, but if I didn't then I wouldn't get to see all of those adorable faces you make when you're cross with me." said Natsu while giving her one of his toothy grins.

"Still the same Natsu even after staying in the Spirit Realm for two whole years." she mumbled to herself with a bright smile.

"Hey, I'm way stronger than when I started to train with that old mustached fart. Not only that, but I would like to think that I've matured quite a bit as well and won't always rush in like I used to do." he replied in a defensive tone that he instantly lost when he started to hear the spirit he was hugging giggle.

"That you have, and what have I told you about calling the Spirit King something other than his appropriate title?" she said while still trying to calm down from her fit of giggles. "But at your core you'll always remain that boy who just wants to have fun and see those that he cares about with a smile on their faces." she finished while now giving him a loving smile.

"That I shouldn't and what can I say, I've always seen those two things as some of the more important things to do in life." he stated as he closed his eyes with a content expression coming over his visage.

"You don't need to say anything else, Natsu." said Aries with a happy smile that slowly changed into a slightly sad one. "I just wish that we had more time like this." she whispered to herself, knowing full well that he could still hear her.

"I thought that you were excited to see Lucy and everyone else again?" he asked her with an intrigued expression now on his face.

"I do… I just know that as soon as we're back there they'll be asking all sorts of questions and we'll never get any alone time." she mumbled with a frown as she looked at her hands resting in her lap.

"That is probably the most likely thing to happen once we get back, but you're forgetting that if we do ever need any alone time. You can just bring us back here, where we'll have more than enough time alone together." he said while giving her another one of his usual grins. "And we can stay like this until they absolutely need me back there." he finished as a look of disbelief came over the spirit's beautiful face.

"Aren't you afraid that we could be late for the Grand Magic Games?" asked Aries in an unsure tone.

"Nope, the Spirit King said that he'd send us both back at the last second possible." he said while emphasizing Spirit King. "Just so you know Aries, you aren't the only one that wishes that things could stay like they are right now for a little longer." he finished as they both laid back in the bed together with Aries resting her head on his chest.

 **June 30th in one of the many market distracts of Crocus just a few hours before midnight:**

"Thanks for spending the rest of your day with me Levy, it really helped get my mind off the two of them." said Lucy with an appreciative smile as she and Levy headed back towards the Honey Bone Lodge.

"Don't mention it Lu-chan, also I was more than happy to go shopping for books with someone that appreciates them as much as I do." replied the bookworm with a bright smile as she looked down at the stack of four books she just bought earlier.

"We should do this more often." she stated while looking ahead of them at some sort of commotion that was going on further down the street.

"I'd like that, but do you happen to have any idea what's going on up there?" asked Levy as she took notice of the disturbance that they were drawing nearer to.

"None, so we might as well see what's going on since we're in the area." was the celestial mage's reply as she picked up her pace. As the two of them made their way through the crowd, they both were stunned to find out that the cause of the commotion was only from a fight that happened on a daily basis in Fairy Tail. At least that is what they thought until they noticed that people on the ground were severely beaten, and to make this stand out even more, it appeared that only just two other people were responsible for all of it.

"Man, you guys are all just bark and no bite." stated a blonde haired man as he ground one of his boots on the face of one of the many people strewn across the area.

"I told you Sting, if we want any sort of competition we're going to have to wait until the final eight in the games." said the black haired mage that was apparently the partner identified as Sting.

"I figured as much, but at least this means there's going to be one less pathetic guild competing this year." replied Sting as he started to laugh out loud. This was all the two members of Fairy Tail needed to hear to know that they didn't like the two of them and could no longer sit back and just watch.

"What gives you the right to determine whose worthy of competing? And isn't it illegal for guilds to fight each other like you guys just did?" asked Lucy while coming to the front of the crowd with a heated glare sent their way.

"What right you ask? How about being the strongest team from the strongest guild in Fiore?" asked Sting as a smug grin made its way across his face as he started to check out the two women that came out of the crowd.

"That still doesn't give you the right to attack these guys like you did. Which like my friend said before is definitely illegal, and probably more than likely against the rules of these games as well." stated Levy with a prominent glare of her own. Instead of Sting and his partner having a look of fear like the two expected them to have, Sting burst into laughter as his partner's expression remained a bored one.

"Holy crap Rogue, these two really don't know who we are do they?" asked Sting as he continued to hold his sides from his fit of laughter.

"It would appear that they don't, but they are correct about this being against the rules of the Grand Magic Games." replied Rogue as he appeared to be surveying the crowd of spectators.

"Like they would risk getting rid of the Twin Dragon Slayers, half of the people are here just to see us." he boasted with a hearty chuckle.

"You two definitely don't seem like much to me." stated Lucy, causing Levy and the rest of the gathered people to let out a shocked gasp. Sting however stopped his chuckling and was now glaring at the blonde celestial mage, while Rogue on the other hand was looking at her with slight interest.

"What did you just say Blondie?" he asked as his magic started to flare up and most of the crowd started to back up. Which is exactly what he wanted to happen, but unfortunately the one that he really wanted to stagger back didn't and instead took a step towards him.

"I said that you two are nothing but a bunch of common thugs that are picking on those that are weaker than you." she spat out at him as most of the crowd was looking at her as if she had completely lost her mind. And their concern for the blonde only grew as laughter could now be heard coming from Sting as he had his head down.

"Man you sure have an enormous pair of balls on you lady, something that not too many women can say." he replied now smirking at her. "So are the two of you going to put us into our place?" he asked while gesturing over at Levy.

"Yes we will, but not here." answered Lucy as she continued to glare at him. "You'll realize how wrong you are when Fairy Tail beats you." she declared only to be completely caught off guard when both of the dragon slayers along with the rest of the people still gathered around them burst into laughter.

"You've got to be kidding me." he chuckled out.

"We're not!" yelled Levy in an upset tone, wondering why everyone was now laughing at the two of them.

"Fairy Tail is one of the weakest guilds now, there is no way you guys could ever hope to beat Sabretooth." shouted out someone from the crowd. Which was soon followed by more taunts and jeers being thrown at the two females of Fairy Tail only for them to stop when Sting rose a hand in the air.

"As you can see Blondie, we're not just talk and the whole country knows it. So if you two apologize we can end all of this right now and go our separate ways before you embarrass yourselves anymore." proposed the blonde dragon slayer.

"Like hell I'll apologize, when it should actually be you that is apologizing." replied Lucy through gritted teeth as her right hand tapped her key ring nervously.

"Sting let's just leave already, these two are part of that group everyone thought was dead a few years ago. So they are still more than likely clinging to what their guild used to be." stated Rogue as he came up to Sting and patted him on the shoulder.

"You're right Rogue, these two are definitely not worth the trouble." he said with a smug grin spread across his face. "I mean they're from the same guild that had those fake dragon slayers that we used to look up to, who couldn't even kill a dragon like they were supposed to." he finished with a hint of glee in his voice.

"You take that back!" shouted Lucy now clutching onto Loke's key, ready to call him at a moment's notice.

"You two don't know what you're talking about, I can guarantee that both of you would have been just as helpless going up against Acnologia!" shouted out Levy, who was almost just as upset as her friend right now.

"First off, do you expect anyone to believe that you guys were attacked by the dragon of the Apocalypse?" asked Sting with an eyebrow raised questioningly.

"Why wouldn't we when the Council was there?" she asked him back.

"According to the Council, Fairy Tail's strongest members were taken out during an altercation with the former dark guild known as Grimoire Heart." stated Rogue in a bored tone even though he was just as interested as everyone else there.

"Then they lied, and why do you think that you two could actually kill a dragon when our dragon slayers couldn't?" asked Lucy now with a sneer directed at the blonde that was getting on her nerves more than even Natsu and Happy could.

"Because we've done it before." answered Sting as he gave the two of them his biggest grin yet. "We are better than every dragon slayer that came before us, not only have we both killed a dragon on our own. But we are both third generation dragon slayers, which means that not only were we taught by actual dragons but also have lacrima in us just like the second generation." he explained as the two women of Fairy Tail eyes shot open after hearing this.

"Even if that is true, where in the world did you both find a dragon to slay?" asked Levy, wondering if it was possible for there to now be a third generation of dragon slayers out there.

"Where do you think?" replied Rogue as he turned away from them and headed back into the crowd where he disappeared from their view. It only took Lucy and Levy a few more seconds to figure out the easiest dragon for both of them to find, needless to say they were both now looking at Sting with a look of complete disgust.

"That's right, we killed the dragons that raised us." he stated with an amused smirk spreading across his lips.

"How could you kill them, they were your parents!" shouted Lucy with nothing but contempt in her voice.

"Don't tell me that is what Natsu and rest of them told you about their dragons." he replied with a little chuckle as he could instantly tell that it was. "It's because of weak thinking like that, that they weren't able to kill the supposed dragon that attacked you guys back then. Actually, where are they?" he asked now looking around for the pink hair of his former idol.

"They're not here right now." mumbled Levy, silently wondering why she hadn't seen Gajeel or Laxus yet. Yes neither of them were picked to be on the team competing in the games, but she thought that they would at least show up with the rest of them and show their support for their fellow guild members.

"Oh, so they're running away again just like they did back then." he stated only for his head to snap to the right as a sting was felt on his left cheek.

"Shut the hell up, I don't care what you say but you're nowhere near half the dragon slayer that Natsu or any of the rest of them." growled out an extremely pissed off celestial mage as she glared at the blonde right in front of her.

"You're going to wish you never did that bitch, now you're going to see what a real dragon slayer is capable of." he growled back at her as he took a step toward her. But to his surprise there was now a hole where there wasn't one just a second ago, and before he could even try and catch himself he felt his left arm brought behind his back as he was brought to the ground.

"I don't want to fight you, and I'm only doing this for your own good." whispered Loke from on top of Sting before he was tossed off of the dragon slayer and gracefully landed next to his Master.

"You've got a funny way of showing it, and it appears that you might actually turn out to be more entertaining than I initially thought you were." he said while glaring at Lucy with Loke standing before her.

"Well I couldn't let you harm my Master now could I?" asked the spirit with a smirk as he pushed up his sunglasses.

"No you couldn't since that's the duty of all celestial spirits." answered Sting as he dusted himself off, which seemed to calm him down a bit. "So what did you mean by that other part?" he asked now looking Loke directly in the eyes.

"All that I can say right now is that I just saved you from almost certain death." replied the spirit still smirking at the blonde dragon slayer.

"You're not going to tell me what you mean by that either, are you?" he asked as the spirit nodded his head affirmative. "Usually I would beat the answers out of you, but it would appear that we've drawn enough attention to get the guards involved. So instead I'll get my answers from you and Blondie during the games." he continued to say while turning away from them and walking away just before some guards appeared and started to round up the wounded.

"Loke, what did you say to him?" asked Lucy as they started to head back to their inn since the guards didn't spare them a second glance.

"That I stopped him for his own good of course." answered Loke while giving Lucy one of his patented smirks with a quick wink.

"Okay, but how exactly did you save him from certain death?" asked Levy with an inquisitive look sent the spirit's way.

"Do I really have to spell it out for you two?" he asked them back, only to receive blank looks from both of them. "And you guys are always calling him the dense one." he mumbled under his breath. "I stopped that asshole from harming you Lucy, because if he did I can imagine a certain pink haired dragon slayer hunting down that bastard and beating him within an inch of his life once he found out about it." he stated as if it should have been the most obvious thing to rationalize.

"He wouldn't have done something like that." argued the blonde while shaking her head in denial.

"I don't know about that Lucy." stated her friend with a large smile spread across her lips. "I mean, just think about all of the times he came rushing to save you when you were in trouble." she finished still smiling at Lucy.

"Yeah, but Natsu would have done that for anyone else in the guild." she stated, not liking the looks that her two friends were currently giving her.

"True, but he always seems to be extremely upset whenever it's you that is in danger." pointed out Loke before disappearing in a flash of gold.

"Not only that, Lucy, but he also will rush straight in without a second thought or a care for what might happen to himself in the process." said Levy while still smiling at her friend.

"That's just Natsu." she argued back since it was in fact the Natsu that she knew since first meeting him.

"It is, but you bring that side out of him more than anyone else does Lucy." replied Levy as she looked off towards their inn that was just a few blocks away. "Only a few people know this Lu-chan, but before you joined the guild Natsu was still hurting from Lisanna's supposed death. And being the idiot that he is he did everything he could to make sure that everyone else was happy while also hiding his own pain at the same time." she said with a frown slowly making its way across her lips.

"Really?" asked Lucy with a surprised expression coming over her visage.

"Yep, but then you came along and helped him over all of that and made it so that he was no longer hiding his pain and was actually happy." she responded as a smile once again came over her face. "Natsu has never been good with words, but his actions show that you're someone extremely important to him Lu-chan. Well it's been fun, but now I've got a few books I need to start reading and you've got your team to meet up with." she stated before leaving Lucy behind as she entered Honeybone Lodge.

This left Lucy all alone in the street with a slight blush dusting her cheeks at what her friend seemed to be implying. Of course she was more than likely letting her writer's mind get carried away, this was Natsu they were talking about. There is no way that he could ever think of her as anything more than a close friend. But as the blonde thought of that she couldn't help but remember all of the times he gave her that grin of his, or the many times he saved her and had an extremely concerned expression on his face as he made sure she was fine.

"Gah, damn you Levy!" shouted Lucy as she headed towards their lodge. "Why would you say such ridiculous things to me now of all times?" she asked herself, hoping that she would be able to forget all of this and be able to go back to how things were before. If that was even possible considering that she still hadn't seen or spoken with Aries for the last three months, which can also be said for Natsu as well.

 **A few minutes before midnight in Team Natsu's Room:**

"Where the hell are they?" asked an irate Erza as she nervously paced back and forth in the center of the room.

"No idea Erza, and the rest of the guild is currently looking for Wendy and Carla as we speak." answered Gray from his spot on one of the beds in the room. "But, now I want to ask you where did all of that faith for Flame Brain go?" he asked with a little smirk.

"Gray, this is definitely not the time." stated Lucy, hoping that Erza wouldn't beat him into oblivion for having such a carefree attitude at the moment.

"She's right Gray, and you're lucky that we can't be down another member right now otherwise you'd definitely learn the errors of your ways." hissed out the scarlet haired knight as she gave him a heated glare. "And I'll have you know that I still haven't lost my faith in Natsu, I'm just upset that he's apparently waiting until the last possible second to come back to us." she said while going back to pacing back and forth.

"Erza's right, Natsu is a real Man and would never let us down by not showing up." chimed in Elfman with Happy happily eating a fish on one of his enormous shoulders. "I'm more concerned about what could have possibly held up Wendy." he finished with a worried look coming over his face.

"Don't worry Elfman, Carla is with her." came the jumbled reply from Happy as he continued to eat his fish.

"And what exactly would she be able to do if they were suddenly attacked?" asked Erza as she twirled around to get a better look at the blue Exceed.

"She'd just fly them away from there and come back to us for help." was the Exceed's simple reply, not realizing the deadly glare he used to be receiving from the redhead only moments ago.

"I never thought of that." she said with a neutral expression before taking a seat and starting to read a book casually. This sudden change of attitude of hers shocked the other three occupants of the room that weren't eating fish as if their life depended on it. They all looked back and forth between each other, silently having a discussion on who would be the one to ask about the complete one eighty on Erza's part.

It only took them a few more seconds before it was decided that Gray was going to ask since he was already on her bad side from that earlier comment of his. So the ice mage cleared his throat and got read to possibly enter a minefield that would more than likely end with him being on the receiving end of one of Erza's lessons that never seemed to work on him or Natsu.

"So, just like that, you're no longer concerned about Wendy and Carla?" he asked the knight currently reading a book. At first they all thought that she didn't hear him, and just before Gray was about to ask her again she looked up from her book and gave him a stern look. "No I'm still worried about them, but I believe Happy is correct and that we should have more faith in their abilities. And as you already mentioned, the rest of the guild is looking for them as we speak, so pacing around in this room isn't going to solve anything." she said before going back to reading her book.

"Definitely wasn't expecting that kind of response." he mumbled to himself while looking at the other two in the room, who he could also tell weren't expecting that from Erza.

"So what do you guys think they're going to have us do tonight?" asked Elfman in the hopes of lightening the mood and changing the topic to something that he knew they were all curious about.

"It would definitely have to be some sort of event where they whittle down the number of guilds participating." stated Erza while not even looking up from her book.

"How many guilds are even participating this year?" asked Lucy, since this was a country wide competition.

"I heard that with each year the number increases and that this year has more than one hundred different guilds competing." answered Gray as he went to the window and started to gaze out of it. Hearing this caused Elfman to let out a low whistle before he decided to speak up again. "I honestly didn't even know that there were that many guilds in Fiore." he stated while shaking his head back and forth. Lucy was about to comment that a lot can change in seven years, but before she could even utter a single syllable, something in the center of the room drew all of their attention.

At first it sounded like a faint pop, but after just a few seconds that pop grew into what they could only describe as the sounds of a roaring fire. And to their shock a large pillar of golden flames sprung up in between all of them with what appeared to be two figures in the center of the burning inferno. It only took the rest of them another second to figure out who was most likely responsible for all of this, which was then confirmed as the flames faded away to reveal Natsu and Aries standing together.

What shocked the previous inhabitants of the room from greeting their two friends was that with just one look at the dragon slayer they could all tell that he was no longer the same as before. The once hyperactive dragon slayer now had the unmistakable aura of power radiating off of him in waves that made even Erza have a shiver run up her spine. But that wasn't what prevented them from greeting the two of them like they usually would; no the reason for that was the stern look he currently had on his face that gave him an air of maturity that none of them would have thought even possible for him to achieve.

"Natsu, is that really you?" asked Happy in a nervous voice as he looked at his father figure, that was now in an outfit that none of them have ever seen him wear before.

Gone was his black vest that gave everyone a great view of his chest and arms, in its place he now wore a white coat that had a military look to it. The only other color that could be seen on the coat is gold, which was mainly used on the buttons, trimmings and a few other areas to accent certain things. If you looked closely at the trimmings that went around the cuffs of his sleeves and the bottom of the coat that stopped at his knees, you'd see that the gold was styled to look as if the flames were moving ever so slightly if inspected up close. His new coat had a high collar, that if turned up would probably cover his entire face, other than that it had straps on the shoulders that made it look almost like a shoulder pad. It didn't even have any pockets, well on the outside that is, the only other thing that they noticed about his coat was the two straps at waist height that hung down about another foot on each side.

He wore this coat open, allowing them to see that he still chose to not wear a shirt which would have been a crime to not show off those abs of his. That, somehow during his time in the spirit realm, got even more impressive and defined to the point it almost didn't make sense. But that is something that Aries will have to deal with since it'll definitely be noticed by a few women in the upcoming days. As for his pants, they actually stayed the same except for instead of being white with black at the bottom. They were now completely black with a golden trimming that also allowed him to tighten them on his legs like his old ones.

The last change to his outfit was his sandals, which he switched from black to white. So to put it simple he pretty much completely switched his color scheme to the opposite of what it once was. The only thing not changing being his white scarf that was still wrapped around his neck, with the ends hanging over the edges of his opened coat. As they all took in his new outfit they didn't notice his signature grin slowly spreading across his lips as he looked at them.

"Hey guys, how's it been?" he asked still grinning at his friends, which was enough to break them out of their stunned silence.

"Natsu!" cheered Happy as he crashed into the dragon slayer's face and clung on for dear life. "Why didn't you come back earlier? I was so worried and I barely got any fish while you were gone." said the Exceed to the shock of everyone else in the room. And the only reason they were shocked was because he never once seemed to be worried about Natsu during the last three months. Which all he did during that time was go fishing and try and win over Carla with the best catch of the day, which also happened to be the only one remaining since he would always eat the rest.

"Judging from that little stomach of yours, I'd have to guess that everything you just said to me was a lie." he replied with a giant smirk as Happy's eyes shot open wide for being found out right away.

"Are you saying I'm fat?" asked the Exceed still having his eyes wide open in a comical fashion.

"You tell me." stated Natsu as he poked his partner's stomach with a finger, which caused Happy's eyes to start tearing up before he let out a sob and flew towards Lucy.

"Lucy, Natsu just said I was fat!" he shouted before smashing into her chest and hugging her.

"It doesn't feel very good when you're on the receiving end now does it?" she asked him with a smug grin as he looked up at her with teary eyes while shaking his head no. "And sorry Happy, but I think he might be right about you taking on a few pounds while he was away." she stated only for Happy to let out another sob before flying to Erza and landing on her shoulder since he didn't want to smack into her breastplate like he's already done a few times.

"Erza they're both being mean to me, you know what it's like to not being able to control yourself when in front of your favorite food." he said while wiping away a few tears, seeing Erza nod her head in agreement since she couldn't help herself when around strawberry cheesecake. "So how did you get rid of the extra weight that you gain?" he asked while still wiping away the last of his tears.

This meant that he didn't see the once understanding face turn into one of absolute rage, which was directed solely at him. All of the other occupants of the room could only shake their heads at the little Exceed who brought all of this on himself. So when they all heard a little eep and saw that he was gone the next second, none of them felt the need to say anything in fear of directing the red head's anger their way.

"Same old Happy." said Natsu with a little chuckle as he looked out the window that his partner was ejected out of just seconds ago.

"Indeed, but it would seem that the same can't be said about you two." stated Erza as if she just hadn't tossed the Exceed out of the window with all of her might.

"I wouldn't say that, we're still the same deep down." replied Aries with a bright smile as she leaned against Natsu's shoulder as they continued to hold each other's hand.

"Like hell, you look nothing like you used to and both of you are standing together like you're a couple!" shouted out Gray as he first pointed at Aries then pointed to their hands interlocked with each other. This caused the two of them to have slight blushes come over their faces as they separated.

"Well you see, that's actually a really long story that we don't really have the time to go over right now." she said in a slightly nervous tone as she looked at her feet. She would have probably apologized to them like she used to always do if she wasn't brought into a warm embrace that she knew all too well.

"So what if we are?" asked Natsu in a deep voice as he held Aries to his chest. This was definitely not what any of the others were expecting to hear from him of all people, especially given his reputation of being completely clueless on that front. But here he was holding Aries protectively, as if he thought they might try to hurt her or take her away from him.

"Are you saying that you two are a couple?" asked Elfman, who was the first to recover from such a surprise, probably because he didn't spend as much time with the dragon slayer as the rest of them.

"That's kind of complicated." he chuckled back while letting go of his mate and scratching the back of his head.

"How in the world is it complicated? Are you or aren't you a couple?" asked Gray, who for some reason seemed extremely upset about this.

"That's part of the reason why it'd be a really long story to tell all of you." he answered still rubbing the back of his head with one hand.

"Natsu, please don't tell me that you did indecent things with one of Lucy's Spirits." stated Erza now sitting on one of the beds in the room and sharpening a very large axe. Luckily for Natsu, this was when Mato appeared in the night sky and started to explain how the games were going to be done this year. Mato went on to explain the preliminary event would be the Sky Labyrinth and that the Grand Magic Games just began.

"Let's go and win this thing!" he cheered as he jumped onto the stairs leading up to the Sky Labyrinth.

"You're going to tell us everything we want to know after this." she declared while taking off after the dragon slayer that was already a good distance ahead of them.

"Damn right he will, I just can't believe he got a girlfriend before me." mumbled out Gray as he and Elfman took off after the two of them.

"Lucy… I never…" Aries started to say only for her to be cut off by being enveloped in a hug by her former Master.

"I'm just glad that the two of you are fine." she said as a few stray tears fell down her face. "And we'll figure everything else out once we get back." she finished with a smile that she thought was convincing. But the spirit could see that she was just putting up a brave face and was really hurt by finding out that she and Natsu were in some sort of relationship.

But before the Spirit could say anything to her blonde friend, Lucy took off after the others leaving her all alone in their room. "Lucy, neither of us would do anything on purpose to hurt you. I hope you know that." said Aries as she sat down on the bed with a frown coming over her visage. She was about to lie down when the door was violently thrown open and in rushed Lisanna with a worried expression.

"They're already gone, Master is going to be upset that I didn't get to warn them." she said not noticing the Spirit to the side of the room.

"Warn them about what?" asked the spirit with a concerned look coming over her already worried face. Lisanna not realizing that someone was still in the room almost had a heart attack as she jumped back while letting out a loud scream.

"Who are you and what are you doing in their room?" she asked now in a defensive stance and blocking the door in the process.

"Did I really change that much?" asked Aries with a slight pout as she looked down at herself. "It's me, Aries." she finished since she could tell that the youngest Strauss was definitely not going to come to that conclusion on her own.

"No way, what in the world caused you to change so much?" she asked with an eyebrow raised, but before the Spirit could reply Lisanna started up again. "Doesn't matter right now, and what I wanted to warn them about was that Master believes we're already being targeted in these games for some reason." she said with a slight scowl coming over her face.

"Really, why would Master Makarov think that?" asked the Spirit now becoming even more worried about her friends than she already was.

"Because we found Wendy and Carla, and it appears as if they were attacked." replied Lisanna now having an angry expression coming over her face, something that rarely happened for her.

"Are they both alright?" she asked knowing that Natsu saw the younger dragon slayer as his little sister. And that Happy was infatuated with the other Exceed, meaning that her mate also cared deeply for the white Exceed as well.

"Porlyusica says that they've only been drained of their magic unexpectedly, and that if they're given a few days of rest that they'll make a complete recovery." answered Lisanna with a slight smile coming over her face, even though she was clearly still upset about someone attacking Wendy and Carla.

"Good, and if you want I could inform Natsu about all of this." stated the Spirit in a slightly nervous tone since she never really interacted with any of the other Fairy Tail mages without Natsu and Lucy being with her.

"You can actually do that?" asked Lisanna while looking at the Spirit with a shocked expression, only getting a nod from the pink haired lady. "That would be great, and wait a minute why are you telling Natsu and not Lucy?" she asked, finding it really odd that Natsu would be the person she chose to inform.

"We'll tell you later, most likely with the rest of the guild. But first I need to concentrate since I'm still new to all of this." said Aries before closing her eyes and having her face scrunch up into one of concentration.

 **With Natsu and the rest:**

"Why in the hell did you stop all of a sudden Flame Brain?" asked Gray after running into what felt like a brick wall that was actually Natsu's back. The ice mage was about to throw a few more insults his rival's way, but after walking around and getting a glimpse at his pissed off face he thought better of that. Especially when it started to feel as if it was now the hottest part of the summer and was still climbing higher with each passing second.

"Natsu, what is going on?" asked Erza as she approached him with a concerned look since she rarely saw him this upset. But just like Gray she was ignored by the dragon slayer that looked ready to rip off someone's head if they so much as touched him.

"Natsu!" shouted Lucy as she stepped in front of him and had a prominent glare of her own. And to the rest of their group's shock, he snapped out of it and the temperature started to slowly go back to normal. "What's the matter, it seemed like you couldn't even hear Gray or Erza when they were talking with you before?" she asked him with a stern expression on her visage.

"They found Wendy and Carla, they were attacked." he replied, causing the other four to let out shocked gasps. "They'll both be fine after a few days of rest, but Gramps thinks that this is a sign that we're already being targeted during these games." he said while taking a seat right where he used to be standing.

"I'm glad to hear that they're both fine, but why in the world are you taking a seat all of a sudden?" asked Gray now looking at Natsu as if he had completely lost it.

"Just shut up for once Stripper, I'm through with walking around this labyrinth like a blind bat." he replied, which only confused the rest of them more, but they decided to see what he was up to. So for the next few seconds they all silently stood there as they watched him do what appeared to be meditation, only for his eyes to shoot open all of a sudden. But instead of the onyx ones that they were used to seeing, he now had golden slits that looked reptilian and as if they were on fire. " **EYES OF THE CELESTIAL FIRE DRAGON.** " he whispered out so that none of them could completely understand him.

The next second a golden fire blasted out from him in all directions and continued on well past the limits of the Sky Labyrinth. This not only caught his teammates off guard, but every other contestant came to a stop when a wave of what appeared to be golden flames washed over them. But instead of burning them like most of them thought, it just gave off a warm feeling and brought a smile to a few of them.

"Seriously, what in the world was that just now?" asked Elfman as he looked at the now standing dragon slayer as if he had never seen him before.

"That was just a new spell that I learned while in the Spirit Realm, it let's me get a glimpse of everything around me for just a second." he said while getting into a stance that they all knew extremely well since it was one of his strongest moves. "It's really handy in situations like this one, but unfortunately it can't be used to find out where my opponents are all the time since it only lets me see for just a second." he explained while closing his eyes and having a serious expression come over his face.

"Since when do you care or even know about a move that isn't combat focused?" asked Gray with a shocked expression since that was so far the most un-Natsu-like thing he's seen from him so far.

 **"FIRE DRAGON'S ROAR!"** bellowed the dragon slayer before golden flames spewed from his mouth and tore through wall after wall of the Sky Labyrinth. Pretty much anything that stood in front of his flames was reduced to rubble until he all of a sudden cut it off.

"Since I first started training with the Spirit King." he replied while taking off down the new path he just created. Only for him to stop and turn around to look at his team with a confused expression on his face. "Are you guys just going to stand there all day like idiots or are we going to go and win this stupid thing?" he asked, which got them to all start chasing after him. But none of them spoke as he turned away and took off running again, all of them thinking the same thing which was how strong is he now, since that roar didn't seem to affect him at all.

 **A few minutes later at the finish line of the Sky Labyrinth:**

"Congratulations Fairy Tail! You've made it into the Grand Magic Games!" cheered Mato as he watched them walk through the whole Natsu made, none of them knowing except for Natsu, that his roar stopped just a few feet away from hitting the pumpkin headed mascot of the games.

"Do I need to be here anymore?" asked Natsu as he got right up in front of Mato and looked down at him with a look that scared the poor little mascot.

"No, but aren't you curious about what position you came in?" he asked the dragon slayer back in a slightly nervous tone since he could tell that Natsu was the one responsible for the flames.

"Nope, I already know that we're the first ones here." stated Natsu in a hurried tone as he walked away from Mato and his shocked teammates. "Aries could you give me a little lift?" he asked to the confusion of everyone there, which only grew when Aries appeared in golden flames right next to him with a large smile as she jumped him with a hug.

"You did great Natsu." she said after they separated.

"Thanks, but I'd like to go and see Wendy as soon as I can." he stated with a worried look washing over his face.

"Okay, but you know he said that we can only do this a certain amount of times." she replied, as he nodded his head in understanding which was then followed by both of them disappearing in golden flames, just like the ones that she appeared in.

"I thought he was just a fire mage." stated Mato as he looked at the rest of the Fairy Tail team with an inquisitive look, something that was quite hard considering his head was a giant pumpkin.

"Don't ask us, he's just our teammate." replied Gray as he started to walk towards what he could only assume was the standard exit for the Sky Labyrinth. This greatly confused Mato and he was about to ask the others, but they were already following Gray at a hurried pace. No doubt wanting to go and make sure Wendy and Carla were alright, just like Natsu who decided to go a different and more likely faster route.

 **In one of the rooms at the Honeybone Lodge that was now set aside as the Infirmary:**

Makarov and Porlyusica were both looking at the two girls in bed with solemn expressions, because having your magic drained from you is a very serious situation. Especially considering that he had it done to him during their war with Phantom Lord. Luckily this time it wasn't as severe or life threatening for whatever reason, something that they were both extremely thankful for.

"Is there any way for you to figure out who did this to them?" he asked her in a tone that showed how angry he was that someone attacked his children like this.

"Unfortunately no, but what I can tell you that whoever did this…" she started to reply only to stop and step back as golden flames suddenly sprung up in the center of the room. And before the flames could even die down a slight smile started to form on her lips, that is until a large fist came slamming down on the fire.

"Did you really think I'd let you harm one of my brats again?" asked Makarov in a booming voice that by itself would have terrified most people. But add in the fact that he was currently letting a large amount of his magic out, you'd have to be crazy to not turn and run for your life. That is unless you've known him pretty much your entire life and also might be just a tad bit crazy if you asked almost anyone else.

"Is that how we're going to greet each other from now Gramps?" asked Natsu with a large grin as he just barely held Makarov's fist from smashing him and Aries into the floorboards.

"Natsu? What in the world are you doing here, aren't you supposed to be competing?" asked the elderly guild Master as his hand shrunk back to normal size and watched the two new guests approach Wendy and Carla's bed.

"I came to help, and we already won that stupid thing." he replied while taking a seat on the side of the bed and gently reaching out to brush away a few stray hairs of the younger dragon slayer.

"You won?" asked Porlyusica since Makarov appeared to be too shocked at what he just heard to properly put his thoughts into words.

"Yep, you could say I kind of cheated when I decided to make my own route to the finish line." he answered with a slight smile. "But that was the only way I could come up with that would get me back here as fast as possible." he finished while glancing over at the healer that was watching him intently, so much so that he was slightly freaked out by it.

"I'm sure there will be footage of it tomorrow for everyone to see." she stated with a smile once again spreading across her lips. Lips that some would believe have never smiled before and they would probably not believe that they were doing it right now unless they could see it for themselves.

"Probably, I'm sure she'll enjoy watching it and listening to the earful I'm sure to get from Erza and Makarov once he comes back to his senses." he said with a little chuckle.

"They both look so peaceful." pointed out Aries with a fond smile as she sat down next to Natsu. "But where's Happy, I thought he would be here right now fussing over Carla?" she asked the elderly healer with a worried look.

"That blue little fur ball is just like his father used to be, freaking out and running around like a chicken with his head cut off. Which is definitely what the two of them don't need right now, so I had him removed from the room by that white haired one." answered Porlyusica as she continued to watch Natsu as if he was the most interesting thing she has ever seen.

"Lisanna, she is with Happy and is more than likely feeding him as much fish as he could ever possibly want as we speak." stated Makarov as he came up to the side of Porlyusica and looked at Wendy and Carla. "And I'll only give you a lecture my boy if I'm charged for the destruction that seems to follow you wherever you go." he said while giving Natsu a quick grin.

"Thanks Gramps." replied Natsu with a slight grin of his own. "Is it okay if I try something?" he then asked while turning to look at the older woman in the room.

"By all means." she replied to the shock of Makarov, who during his whole time knowing her never once saw her so readily let someone else try something on her patient.

" **CELESTIAL FIRE DRAGON'S FLAMES OF RECOVERY.** " he said once again just at a whisper, which wasn't low enough for a certain pink haired healer to not make it out. They all watched as a small golden flame appeared around his hand, which he then placed on Carla's forehead for a few seconds. And during those few seconds they could all visibly see the Exceed starting to look better while he kept his hand on her forehead.

He then proceeded to do the same thing for Wendy, but this time he kept his hand on her forehead for a few minutes rather than just a few seconds. And just like with Carla, they all watched in amazement the color returned to her skin and she overall looked better than she did just a few minutes earlier. Makarov was about to praise Natsu for being capable of something other than destruction, but to his shock he watched the pink haired slayer almost fall over. The only reason that he didn't come face to face with the floor was due to Aries grabbing him and putting one of his arms over her shoulders.

"That took more out of me than I thought." came the tired voice of Natsu as he gave his two elders a tired grin.

"Of course it did you idiot, and before you try something like that again we need to have a little chat." replied Porlyusica still with a slight smile gracing her lips.

"Natsu, it's clear that we need to have a serious conversation." stated Makarov as he looked at the tired mage with a stern look.

"I figured as much, but can we wait until tomorrow morning when everyone else can listen in as well since I really don't feel like saying all of this over and over again?" he asked back with a stern look of his own.

"Okay, but if this is just you trying to get out of it…" Makarov started to say, only for him to be cut off by Aries. Who he really didn't expect to speak up like this, and still had no idea why she was even with Natsu and looked so different than the last time he saw the Spirit.

"Don't worry Master Makarov, we both know that this can't be avoided and will tell you and the rest of the guild everything that we can." she said while leading Natsu to the door so he could go and lie down in his own bed.

"Then I'll inform the rest of the guild and make sure that they're all there in the morning." he replied with a small smile that the Spirit reciprocated before leading Natsu out of the room. "So what do you know about all of this?" he asked while turning to look at his old friend.

"Just as much as you do Maky." she said with a full blown smile as Makarov just scoffed at her. "But if my assumptions are correct that brat of yours is one of a kind and will never cease to amaze me at what he's capable of." she finished while going back to looking over her two patients.

"I know he is, but you really didn't tell me anything that I didn't already know." he stated only for Porlyusica to look at him with a blank expression before rolling her eyes at him and going back to her work.

 **End of Chapter**

 **Author's Notes:**

 **Thanks for reading and I hope that you enjoyed it. And yes I know that there wasn't too much action in this chapter, which I'm okay with since those kinds of chapters are going to be coming up later like when the GMG actually starts. Or when the Dragons eventually come through the Eclipse gate and start wreaking havoc on the entire city. Well as you all probably already know I'd love to hear what you all thought about this chapter, which you can do through either a review or PM. Both of which I'll try to reply back to you as soon as I possibly can.**

 **Oh and feel free to check out my profile page for other information.**

 **Until the next Chapter**

 **Digem Out!**


	5. Day One of the GMG

Ch 5: Day One of the GMG

 **July 1st, X791 in the main hall of Honeybone Lodge:**

"And then we finally came back just before Natsu had to compete." explained Aries with a nervous smile as she looked over at Natsu who had his arm wrapped around her during her entire explanation of what happened since they had last seen them.

"I thought you looked older and more handsome." chirped Mira while giving the new couple one of her angelic smiles, causing a few of the other guild members to look at her with incredulous looks. But then again it shouldn't have been surprising for any of them that the guild's self-proclaimed matchmaker would be completely okay with all of that so long as there was a new couple in the guild at the end of it.

"I can't believe that you got two years' worth of training while the rest of us only got three months." mumbled Gray, leaving out the main reason that he was really upset with the dragon slayer. Just one more thing his rival seemed to best him at without evening trying, and that is exactly how he and the rest of the guild was viewing all of this considering what they all just heard.

"Makes me want to have a quick spar with you right now." commented Laxus with a little smirk as he and Natsu locked eyes with each other. Both of them sizing each other up and more than likely already coming up with plans on how to deal with the other one.

"Neither of you are going to start a fight while we still have the games to compete in!" declared Makarov while extending his hand in between the two of them just in case they decided to not listen to him like usual.

"Fine by me." replied Natsu with a little smirk as he quickly scooped up Aries and placed her on his lap. Him just turning down a fight would have caused most of the guild to look at him as if he was someone else, but add in how upfront he was currently being about his relationship with the spirit on his lap. Well let's just say that about half of the guild was no longer conscious and those that were really couldn't blame them.

"Ahhh you're both so cute together!" squealed Mira with her hands grasped tightly together as she watched Natsu nestle his chin into the crook of Aries' neck.

"So does everything you just told us apply to all dragon slayers?" inquired Levy as she quickly glanced over at a certain dragon slayer currently munching on a few bolts.

"At least with the whole having just the one mate thing and them getting some of our abilities, yes." he answered with a knowing grin coming over his face as he looked over at the guild's resident bookworm. "As for everything else… I'm fairly certain that we are one of a kind on that." he finished while giving Aries another huge smile as he nuzzled against her, causing a few to let out their awes while others felt the need to look away from the loving couple.

"That only makes your story even better, it sounds like it could have only happened in a book." stated the oldest Strauss sibling as her matchmaking side seemed to be on overdrive at the moment. "Leave it to Natsu to once again do something that none of us could have ever guessed." she said with hearts in her eyes.

"Back to the whole dragon slayer thing…" said Makarov after coughing to get everyone's attention. "Do these rules apply to all generations of dragon slayers?" he inquired while looking over at his grandson with a concerned look.

"Have you ever had any sort of romantic relationship with anyone before?" he asked while looking over at the blonde with a questioning look.

"What in the hell type of question is that?" replied the lightning mage in an irritated tone as he glared back at the pink haired couple.

"A perfectly logical one." he stated with a little smirk, that Laxus knew right away was his way of taunting him.

"Of course I have, but honestly it's none of your business." he finally answered after the two of them stared at each other in silence for a few moments.

"Then nope, it's probably just a first generation thing since we were actually taught by dragons." Natsu said with his usual smile as he put his head back into its spot on Aries' shoulder.

"What about third generation dragon slayers?" asked Levy as her thoughts drifted back to when she and Lucy ran into the Twin Dragon Slayers of Sabertooth.

"I didn't even know that there was such a thing." he replied with a slightly shocked look coming over his face, only for it then to switch into one of pure excitement. "But I sure as hell can't wait to see what they're capable of." he said as his right fist rose into the air while being completely covered in his golden flames.

"I'm sure you'll face them in the games." said Aries in a loving tone as she reached up and grabbed his fist and brought it down to her waist. Not even slightly bothered by the flames coating it as she did so, this was something that the rest of Fairy Tail was still having a hard time wrapping their heads around.

"So other than not being burned by his flames, what else can you do now Aries?" asked Macao, slightly concerned that another person might be better with his magic than he is.

"Not much." she replied in a shy tone as she looked down at her lap, still not used to having so much attention on her.

"Don't sell yourself short like that." stated Natsu in a tone that surprised most of his friends. Not because it sounded mean or anything like that, but because it was really stern for him while somehow being gentle at the same time as well. "You are now able to ignite any of your wool whenever you want, not to mention how strong you've gotten in hand to hand combat. And that isn't even including how you're also able to use those chains of yours as if they are just another part of your body." he said while now smiling at her proudly, fondly remembering all of their spars together over the past two years.

"But even after all of that I still can't beat you." she declared while looking up at him with a determined look that once again caught some of the guild off guard. Since for most of them their only interactions with the spirit before all of this indicated that she never would have openly challenged someone like she currently seemed to be doing, to Natsu of all people no less.

"Yeah, but what type of mate would I be if I let you get stronger than me when it's my job to make sure that you're safe and sound?" he said while giving her his signature grin.

"Did I hear that correctly Natsu?" asked Erza, finally speaking up for the first time as a deadly aura surrounded her. "Did you just say that it's a man's job to protect women?"

"Yeah, but I didn't mean it like you're making out to be." he said in a completely calm tone, which somehow shocked the guild even more than everything else the newly announced couple had told them over the past few hours. Most of the guild believed that Erza would always be able to make Gray and him cower before her even if they one day matched her in strength or possibly even passed her.

"What he meant by that is that mates are always striving to be the strongest in their partnership." Aries quickly chimed in, seeing that the scarlet haired Knight was about to attack Natsu for his previous comments and possibly other reasons. "It's my job to also make sure that no harm comes to him as well." she said while giving him a loving smile. "In a way it ensures that the both of us will continue to grow stronger so that in the future we'll definitely be able to protect our child."

At the mere mention of a possible child Mira let out a squeal so loud that most of the guild had to cover their ears so that they didn't go deaf. That was then followed by the beautiful barmaid having a slightly disturbing expression coming over her face before she all of a sudden passed out. As her siblings rushed over to her, Natsu and Aries both noticed that said woman had an extremely happy look as she lay on the floor.

"Y-you… Have you t-two… D-d-did you both…" stuttered out Erza as she looked at the both of them with a completely shocked look taking over her usually stoic one.

"What she's trying to ask is have the two of you had sex yet!" shouted out Gajeel from his corner as he continued to eat his scrap metal. Trying to act as if he didn't care about what happened to Natsu when he disappeared, but that was obviously a lie seeing as how quick he was to help Erza out.

"That's none of your business." Aries shouted back with a noticeable blush as she glared at the dragon slayer.

"Yep." was Natsu's simple answer, causing most of the gathered mage's jaws to drop to the floor while the poor spirit on his lap became a few shades darker than their shared hair color.

"That's a fucking lie!" shouted out Gray, with a few other male members of the guild joining in soon afterwards.

"Why in the hell would I lie about something like that?" asked back a clearly confused Natsu as he looked to his mate for an answer.

"Because most people are not so upfront about things like that and also males for some reason find it as something to brag about." explained his mate while glaring back up at him. "And how exactly am I the one that needs to explain this to you when I'm completely new to all of this?" she asked with a little growl at the end of it.

"Me too." he answered defensively only for his usual grin to reappear soon afterwards. "And you all do realize that I was raised by a dragon for crying out loud. Their views on such things are slightly different than most humans and therefore so are mine." he stated as Gajeel nodded his head in agreement while Wendy on the other hand was blushing up a storm. This caused the two first generation dragon slayers to start wondering if she was taught differently than they were, but that was something they could find out later.

"So have the two of you… You know?" asked Laki as the rest of the guild quieted down to hear their answer since some of them were still fairly certain that Natsu didn't even know what sex was still. This caused Aries to once again start blushing and looking away from all of them, which was pretty much impossible since they were in the center of a circle that formed around them.

"I've already told you guys, which apparently isn't enough for all of you." replied Natsu in a dry tone, chalking it up to another thing that made his odd family who they are. "You're going to have to tell them babe, otherwise they'll just keep asking." he whispered into his mate's ear, causing a noticeable shiver to run through her.

"So did the two of you bump uglies?" asked Cana in an extremely interested tone that slightly surprised the pink haired duo as she seemed to just appear out of nowhere next to the two of them. She wasn't the only one interested in finding out if the two's relationship had progressed that far, thus for the next two minutes Aries was continuously asked if they had.

"YES, WE HAD SEX!" she shouted out in frustration as she hopped off of Natsu's lap and glared at all of them. Causing most of them to quickly back down, not because of the look she was currently giving them which in its own right was downright terrifying. No they backed away from her because of the look their usually fun loving dragon slayer was giving them at the moment, which said quite clearly that pain was going to come to anyone that continued to upset his mate.

So the once loud and rambunctious guild settled into an uncomfortable and tense silence, that was lifted by a completely unexpected source. "That a boy Natsu, I knew you had it in you!" cheered Cana as if she was just given the best news in her life.

"Thanks I guess." replied said dragon slayer in an awkward voice as he looked at the guild's resident drunk as if she were crazy.

"God damn it Gray!" Macao and Wakaba suddenly bellowed while giving the aforementioned ice mage a deadly glare.

"What the hell did I do?" he asked back, honestly having no idea what he could have possibly done to upset the two of them so much.

"You were supposed to get laid first." declared Macao before bursting into tears, causing the already confused members of Fairy Tail to only grow more so.

"What in the literal fuck is going on?" asked Gray as he quickly glanced around for someone to answer him.

"We bet on which one of you would get laid first." Wakaba answered only to follow in his best friend's footsteps and start crying.

"That still doesn't explain why the two of you are crying." he pointed out with the rest of the guild nodding their heads in agreement.

"They're both crying because the loser has to pay for the winner's drinking expenses for an entire year." explained Cana with a huge smile as she flagged over the barmaid and ordered an obscene amount of liquor. This of course caused the two already crying mages to cry even harder as the rest of the guild came to the realization of how serious of a bet the three of them had made.

"Soooo… How exactly does your relationship work since he's also apparently your Master now as well?" asked Jet in a slightly awkward tone, wanting to move past the scene of two of their older members currently weeping like little babies.

"That's one of the reasons that I said it was a little complicated." Natsu chuckled out nervously as he rubbed the back of his head with his left hand.

"No it isn't, you're my Master and Mate, even if you weren't the former I'd still do almost anything you'd ask of me." replied Aries as she looked up at him with a loving smile that then turned into a loving kiss.

"So now you're also a celestial mage?" asked the speedster with a confused look coming over his face, and he definitely wasn't the only one in the guild sporting that look at the moment.

"No, he already told us that he's now part spirit and Natsu being Natsu he tried to get rid of her key so no one could control her. But instead of it turning out like he thought it would he now has her key tattooed onto him, which I'm honestly still a little confused about. Not just the whole tattoo thing but you now being part spirit as well." stated Levy as she looked over at Natsu with a questioning look directed his way.

"You and me both." he replied while letting out a tired sigh as he looked at his mate with a concerned look. Not because of what he was just asked, but because of a certain someone not speaking up this entire time and then slipping out of the lodge unnoticed by the rest of the guild. So with a quick nod towards her, Aries politely excused herself from the current conversation and followed after her former Master.

"So far this is the best explanation that the Spirit King and I could come up with." he started to explain as he watched his mate head out into Crocus.

 **With Lucy a few minutes later standing on a bridge:**

"Are you mad at us?" Aries asked hesitantly as she approached the blonde gazing down at the water underneath the bridge the two of them were now standing on.

"Why would I be mad at the two of you?" she asked back while not even looking at her former spirit.

"Because I stole the man you were growing to love." replied the spirit as she hung her head in shame, only for it to snap back up after hearing the response that she got back.

"You didn't steal him; he was never mine to begin with. Something that was made evidently clear when he explained what happened that day when you almost died." replied Lucy as she turned back to look at Aries with a tear stained smile.

"Lucy…" she whispered while bringing her hands up to cover her mouth.

"I know that I should be happy for the two of you, which I am. But for some reason I can't stop crying even though two of my best friends are safe and sound, not only that but are fortunate enough to have found the one they were destined to be with." said Lucy as she choked back a sob from escaping at the end of it.

"It's okay…" she started to say, trailing off at the end since she honestly couldn't reply to that as she started to think about it.

"No it isn't, I'm just so confused right now." shouted out Fairy Tail's only celestial mage as she went back to staring out over the water slowly flowing underneath the two of them. "Part of me knows that I honestly never thought about Natsu that way until recently. But another part of me is telling me that I'm just saying that because I always believed that he'd be waiting for me if I couldn't find anyone else." she said before openly crying. "What kind of friend am I to think about someone like that?" she finally asked while turning to look at the stunned Spirit.

Aries honestly didn't know how to answer such a question without possibly making it harder on the girl she still cared deeply for. So instead she just stood there in silence, only for Lucy to let out a sad laugh as she turned away from her and went back to watching the water.

"A terrible one." she mumbled to herself, before jumping slightly as she was brought into a warm hug from behind. A hug that felt oh so warm and familiar to that of a certain pink haired dragon slayer that was causing her so much confusion at the moment. But instead of it being him, it was none other than Aries hugging her at the moment and smiling back at her.

"No you're not Lucy, you're just confused." stated the spirit in a knowing tone as she continued to smile at the blonde. "You and I both know that he'd be the first one to tell you otherwise on that. He'd probably then go and do something stupid to just prove it, something like screaming it as he battled against a monster terrorizing a town." she finished with a little smirk, that only grew when she heard a giggle escape the girl she was trying to comfort.

"He would, wouldn't he." she agreed while whipping away the last of her tears.

"Yep, or something even more outrageous because you mean that much to him Lucy." replied Aries as she released Lucy from her hug so that they could look each other in the face. "Not only to him, but to me as well." she continued as her old self started to resurface. "Just because Natsu and I are mates now doesn't mean that things are going to have to change between the two of you. Or between the two of us either…" she finished while nervously twirling her finger tips around each other.

And now it was Aries' turn to be surprised by an unexpected hug being sent her way. "Thank you Aries." whispered Lucy as the two of them continued to hug each other. "I know that you honestly mean that, but unfortunately I know it isn't true." this caused Aries to pull away from the blonde and look back at her with an aghast look coming over her face. But before she could deny and argue that the celestial mage was wrong about it Lucy spoke up again.

"I'm not saying that either of you are going be responsible for it changing, but it will. You two are now pretty much married and might even start to consider having children soon. While I on the other hand am still single and will hopefully find someone that makes me as happy as Natsu clearly makes you. It's just another part of life." she stated while giving the spirit a sincere smile.

"We'll all still be friends, right?" asked Aries in a slightly scared voice.

"Definitely, and that's a promise." she replied almost instantaneously as the two of them were once again hugging each other. "I still just need a little more time to sort all of this out. One moment I learn that Happy and I almost died only for the next second to think that you died to save me. But hearing what you and Natsu went through I can't really complain now can I?" she asked while smiling at the pink haired spirit.

"I don't know about that." replied Aries as the two of them shared a quick laugh together before they both went back to watching the water in silence. "I'll leave you to your thoughts then, but I want to make sure that you know Natsu and I will always be there for you whenever you need us." she said before heading back to the Honeybone Lodge.

"I know." Lucy said to herself as a small smile slowly spread across her lips.

"Well wasn't that a touching moment." came the voice of Sting before he dropped down from a nearby roof.

"What the hell do you want?" she asked while glaring at the cocky blonde with a look that would cause most men to cower in fear.

"I was hoping to run into this dragon slayer of yours that you have so much faith in, so I could size him up before the games. But imagine my surprise when instead of running into him I happened to stumble across his mate and teammate having a heart to heart with each other. Not only that but also finding out that you actually have feelings for him as well after he's already given his heart to another. What a shame, but that's just his loss I guess." replied Sting with a smug grin as he made no attempts to hide the fact that he was currently checking her out.

"You're an idiot if you think that I'd let an arrogant pig like you ever touch me." she said with venom dripping from every single word she spat out at him. "And besides, don't you dragon slayers only get a single mate!"

"Is that what that idiot told all of you?" he asked back, completely ignoring the insults she threw at him just moments ago as she nodded her head at him. "Well he's wrong, yet right in a sense as well I guess." he said while stroking his chin in thought.

"And you're saying he's the idiot." Lucy replied while giving him a deadpan expression.

"From what I've gathered that isn't really up for debate." he said with a smirk as Lucy started to glare at him once again. "But that really isn't the point I'm trying to make here, now is it? What he didn't tell you is that if his mate should die, then he'll more than likely move onto one of his other possible mates he's sure to have chasing after him. Like you for instance." he explained while giving her what she could only describe as a creepy grin. But unfortunately that didn't stop her from listening to what he had to say to her, which then caused her to think about if something like that did eventually happened.

"Even if what you say is true I wouldn't want to end up with him if it meant that one of my friends has to die." she declared with absolute certainty, or at least what she thought was absolute certainty.

"You say that, but I can tell that you at least imagined what it would be like if his current mate was out of the picture." taunted Sting as his grin only grew in size as a conflicted look came over the blonde before him.

"So what if she thought about it?" came the stern voice of Erza Scarlet as she came up to Lucy's side as she glared at the blonde dragon slayer.

"Nothing, I'm just pointing out to her that she isn't as high and mighty as she likes to make herself out to be." he commented while still grinning at the two of them. "Just like that fake dragon slayer of yours." he finished, enjoying the noticeable twinge of anger flash across the scarlet haired knight standing in front of him.

"Oh, you must be one of the Twin Dragon slayers Lucy was so upset with last night." Erza remarked as a smug grin started to spread across her own face. "Doesn't really matter since you're definitely one of those people who likes to make a big show out of the small feats that you're actually able to accomplish. Always telling everyone else that you're the greatest mage to ever grace our world while Natsu on the other hand… Well let's just say that he constantly does things like that and lets others decide what they want to think about him." she replied while gesturing to a screen that was replaying the highlights of the Preliminary Event from the night before.

Being the arrogant man that he was, Sting twirled around thinking that what he was about to see wasn't going to be much of a sight. But boy was he wrong, first he watched as the announcers analyzed Natsu's first move which they correctly identified as a way for him to get an incredibly accurate lay of the land. This alone wouldn't have caused the smug dragon slayer to think twice, even he couldn't deny how impressive it was as the footage then showed Natsu's roar tear straight through the labyrinth and stop just a few feet away from hitting Mato. The announcers then went on to say that this showed that not only did he have immense power but also fine control of such a powerful magic since the labyrinth was supposed to prevent someone from doing exactly what he did.

At this point Sting's jaw was hanging open in complete disbelief as they once again showed footage of the roar blasting through the labyrinth from different angles. And they continued to show the footage over and over again while commenting that he was definitely a mage to watch out for in the games that were about to start in less than two hours. After hearing that last part he snapped back to his usual cocky self and had one final comment before leaving the two Fairies alone and heading back to his own guild.

"Anyone can destroy something that can't fight back, let's see if he can do something like that when he's up against someone like me." he said with his back to the two of them.

"I can't wait to find out." replied Erza as she smiled at the retreating dragon slayer.

"Thanks Erza." said Lucy in a quiet voice after she was sure that Sting was gone.

"Don't mention it Lucy, we're Fairy Tail which means that we're always there for each other when we need it." she said with a smile that the Celestial Mage couldn't help but think was fake.

"Do you want to talk about it?" she hesitantly asked the scarlet haired beauty.

"About the Games and what the first event might be?" Erza asked back as the two of them headed back to their lodge. Both of them not really sure what to think about everything that they learned over the past few hours about their pink haired teammate and close friend.

 **Back at Honeybone Lodge:**

Most of the Fairy Tail members were rendered speechless as they all continued to watch the replay of Natsu's roar from the previous night. The announcers were now speculating that an attack of that magnitude could easily be ranked on the power level of Wizard Saint, which only made them even more curious about the Fairy Tail wizard and what he might do next. They were also assuring their viewers that as soon as they found out more about the pink haired mage that they would pass it onto the rest of the country.

"You just can't help but be the center of attention can you?" asked Gray with a little smirk as he looked over at his rival who wasn't even paying attention to the broadcast of himself. Instead he was scarfing down as much food as he physically could, almost as if he hadn't eaten any of it in the past two years.

"Whatever Stripper, give them a day or so and I bet they'll be talking about something I destroyed a few years ago." replied Natsu while giving a dismissive wave over his shoulder.

"You might want to slow down there Mr. Dragneel, you're going to be competing in a little bit." replied a barmaid as she set down another tray piled high with food for him. As she was about to leave she noticed that the room somehow got even quieter than it was before as all of them were looking at her with stunned expressions. "Did I say your name wrong?" she asked him back in a nervous tone as she started to fidget under all of their gazes.

"No you didn't my Dear." replied Makarov while giving the confused barmaid a reassuring smile. "I just think they are surprised to hear someone address him so formally." he explained as a lopsided grin spread across his face as he watched said dragon slayer finally snap out of his little trance.

"Thanks for your concern; I just haven't had any of our food in a really long time." Natsu said with one of his signature grins before tearing back into his food with the same vigor as before. And because of this he didn't notice the strange look he was getting from not only the barmaid but also from the rest of his guild mates.

"Are you saying that you didn't eat anything while you were in the Spirit Realm?" asked Levy, once again not being able to control herself when a key bit of information was within her grasps.

"No…" replied the dragon slayer with a full mouth of food that he then somehow shoved even more into before continuing on. Unfortunately for the blue haired bookworm, what then came out of his mouth was complete and utter gibberish for any normal person. But as fate would have it a certain Exceed was an expert at deciphering Natsu's incoherent mumbles.

"He said that he ate their food, which isn't bad by any means, it just doesn't taste nearly as delicious as the food here." chimed in Happy with a huge smile spread across his face. Only for his partner to shout something else out while spraying a few unfortunate guild members with half chewed up food.

"Or fire of course, nothing beats that." stated the Exceed while nodding his head in agreement. That is until he finally processed what Natsu said and rounded on the pink haired dragon slayer and started to argue with him about fish being the best tasting thing known to man.

"Still the same old Natsu and Happy." pointed out Mira as she and a few other guild members watched the two with fond smiles.

"At least Flame Brain didn't change in that area." said Gray with a little smirk as Natsu's and Happy's argument seemed to only increase in intensity. That is until a loud shout from the lodge's entrance stopped Natsu dead in his tracks since it was his name being shouted out.

"What have I told you about talking while you're still eating?" inquired Aries as she stalked over to him with a menacing look. Not having a problem with making her way towards him since most of the members of Fairy Tail knew how stupid it was to get in the way of an upset woman.

"Not to." was his quick reply after swallowing the last of the food in his mouth and giving her a nervous smile.

"Correct, and just because we're no longer in the Spirit Realm doesn't mean you can go back to your old and quite frankly disgusting eating habits." she said while poking him in the chest until he was back in the seat he used to be sitting in.

"It won't happen again, I promise." he said while holding his hands up in defeat.

"It better not." she replied with an angry huff as she turned away from him. Only for her to then let out an adorable squeak as she was pulled down into his lap and wrapped in his strong arms. "So how did it go with Lucy?" he whispered into her ear so no one else could overhear them.

"As good as we could've hoped for… She just needs a little more time." she whispered back to him as she twisted her head so she could see him.

"Would you two love birds cut it out!" shouted out Wakaba and Macao only for both of them to then start glaring at Gray again. Which was something that the two older mages started to do after they were done bawling over how many jewels they would be forking over to a certain brunette.

"Don't listen to those two old coots you two!" cheered said brunette with a giant mug in hand and her other arm wrapped around an open barrel of wine. "If anything you two should start thinking about popping out a few little brats!" she declared before downing the rest of her mug and instantly filling it up from the barrel right next to her. Needless to say this caught most of the guild off guard making it once again become uncomfortably quiet.

"That's a great idea!" squealed Mira as she started to fantasize about how cute the children of the pink haired couple would look. "I just can't wait to watch over them as you two go out on missions together." she stated while holding her hands together in front of her chest.

"Them?" asked Aries in a slightly nervous and confused voice.

"Yep!" answered the platinum haired beauty as she gave the two of them a huge smile. "You two are bound to have a few kids if even half of Natsu's stamina translates to the bedroom." she explained while still smiling at the two of them, not caring in the slightest that her last comment caused a few of her fellow female guild members to start blushing.

"Do you two want to go double or nothing if you can guess correctly on the number of kids?" asked Cana as she walked over to her two usual drinking buddies and sat down with them.

"HELL NO!" shouted out both of them as they stopped glaring at the guild's ice mage.

"Will you guys quit making bets about us!" yelled Gray, knowing that he was more than likely going to be involved in this bet as well.

"Sorry Gray, no can do since they've already been made." she replied while giving him a smug smile and a quick wink at the end. "And besides, Natsu seems to be completely okay with it." she pointed out while gesturing over to said dragon slayer who just shrugged his shoulders in response.

"How in the world are you okay with this Ash for Breath?" asked his rival as he stomped over to him.

"Probably because they've been doing this for years and I also know most of the bets they've made in regards to me and other guild members." he answered to the shock of the ones making the bets, which then made him realize that he would most likely have to explain himself. "How many times do we have to keep reminding all of you that we're dragon slayers and can pretty much hear everything that is going on in the rooms that we're in." he explained after letting out a tired sigh.

"Apparently about the same number of times as you told me." replied Aries as she started to giggle at all of the slightly embarrassed looks they were currently getting from everyone else.

"As fun as it is to watch all of you remember to watch what you say even if you think no one is listening. Unfortunately we've got the games to prepare for that start in about two hours." chuckled a smirking Makarov, this caused everyone to go back to their rooms and get ready.

 **Ten minutes before the opening ceremony outside of the booth Makarov rented out for the rest of the guild:**

"What is it my boy? You've never been one to be nervous about pretty much anything." stated Makarov as he looked up at a fidgeting Natsu.

"Yeah I know, but I usually don't ask for anything." he replied while coming to a complete stand still.

"True, even though you're the first to run and help someone else with any sort of problem they might have." said the elderly guild Master as a proud smile spread across his face. Wondering how he got so lucky to have someone like Natsu in his guild, even if he is constantly destroying things and upsetting the Council.

"It's not actually for me… But it would mean the world to me if you said yes." he mumbled just loud enough for Makarov to hear him.

"For crying out loud Natsu, just spit it out." he quickly said back, knowing full well that it would get the young mage before him to stop fretting over whatever he was about to ask and just ask it.

"Will you let Aries join Fairy Tail?" asked Natsu as he looked down at his guild Master with a pleading look that quickly turned to an angry one as said guild Master burst into laughter. "This isn't a laughing matter Gramps." he growled out as the temperature rose a few degrees.

"Sorry my boy, but I thought it was going to be something a little more serious with how you were acting." explained the Master of Fairy Tail as he whipped away a few stray tears. "And before you start arguing about it being serious, which it is, I already considered her a member when she was just one of Lucy's Spirits. So it should go without saying that she could become a full-fledged member whenever she wants since she's now your mate." he explained with a warm smile as he watched a few different emotions flash over Natsu's face in the matter of seconds. With the last emotion settling on pure joy at finding out Aries could join the guild he saw as his family.

"But before we go about making it completely official, there are a few things I'd like to point out to the two of you." stated Makarov as Natsu's happy expression quickly changed into a slightly confused one.

"Like what Gramps?" he asked with an eyebrow raised.

"Like the advantages of having her appear as just another Spirit in the eyes of everyone else for these games." replied Makarov only to let out a sigh seeing that he'd have to explain for Natsu to get where he was going with this. "Just think of what the two of you can do together in these games; something that I'm certain will be a sight to behold after what you showed you were capable of doing by yourself in the preliminaries."

"She could still do that after joining the guild." he pointed out after thinking about it for a little bit.

"True, but I'm fairly certain that more than just one guild might see it as an unfair advantage since there will technically be two of our mages out there. Which could possibly force the judges of these games to prohibit the two of you from fighting together." responded Makarov as his expression switched to his serious one.

"So Lucy might not be able to use Loke?" he asked back in a slightly panicked tone, not wanting to know how the blonde would react to having two of her usual spirits being unable to help her like they normally would.

"If you were to use Aries…" Makarov started to say only for a slight growl from the mage in front of him made him rephrase it. "What I meant to say is if the two of you decided to fight together, it would make an already hard opponent become almost impossible to beat for most of the competitors. While Lucy on the other hand, well let's just say I'm fairly certain that most of them will underestimate her and not care that Loke is still technically a member of our guild." he finished explaining, expecting for his hot headed member to instantly start arguing with him like he used to but instead was shocked to see a thoughtful look coming over the pink head as he stood there in thought.

"I can see what you mean Gramps." replied the dragon slayer as he looked down at him with his signature grin. "Unfortunately for us it's up to Aries if she wants to wait until after the games to become a member or not, but I'm sure she'll see your side of things once I tell her."

"And what way do you think she'll do?" inquired Makarov, hoping that she would wait so Natsu would be more of a powerhouse then he already was.

"She'll wait until we win Gramps." he answered while still grinning at the elderly guild Master.

"How do you know? Wait, I forgot about you two being able to telepathically communicate with each other." sighed Makarov as he headed towards the door to the booth with the rest of Fairy Tail waiting in it. "You better hurry and meet up with the rest of your team Natsu." he said while coming to a stop in front of the door.

"Sure thing Gramps, and I can't wait to have a rematch against Laxus." he replied while turning and heading down the hallway.

"How did you find out about that?" asked Makarov as he twirled around to look at the retreating figure of Natsu.

"I got a glimpse of everyone participating in the preliminaries, and considering that he and Gajeel weren't moping around it was pretty safe to assume that their team made it." was his simple reply before he turned down a different hallway and disappeared.

"I think I'm going to have to thank the Spirit King if I ever have the honor of meeting him." Makarov mumbled to himself before opening the door and stepping into the booth with the rest of his guild.

"Can I ask you one more quick question Aries?" asked Levy with a notepad in hand that she clearly had been using to take notes in for the past few minutes.

"Sure, so long as it doesn't deal with you know what, like some of the earlier questions we were getting at." replied Aries as she continued to play with Asuka who was sitting on her lap. Who seemed to instantly take a liking to the Spirit and was very adamant about sitting on her lap to watch the opening ceremony.

"It doesn't." Levy hastily replied while shaking her head back and forth to hide her faint blush after remembering Natsu's completely honest and very vivid answers when asked earlier in the day. "Since Natsu is now your Master aren't the two of you concerned about using up too much of his magic by being out here?" she asked with a concerned look sent the Spirit's way.

"I was actually wondering the same thing and just didn't know how to ask the two of you." voiced Lisanna from the row behind them and sporting an equally concerned expression.

"Before our training with the Spirit King it definitely would have eventually become a problem for him." she answered while looking at the two of them with a small smile. "But now it is no longer a concern for a few different reasons, the first one being he's got enough magic energy for me to be out here for several years." she stated as a few jaws fell open at hearing this. "Part of that is because I'm no longer just a Spirit anymore and can keep myself here at a very small fraction of magic energy when compared to before. And another reason being the Spirit King giving me a different contract considering my unique circumstances." she explained with an even bigger smile than before.

"Mama said you're Uncle Natsu's wife, is that true?" Asuka suddenly asked while looking up at her with an inquisitive look on her adorable little face. This caused Bisca's and a few of the other women's mouths to drop open in shock and slight embarrassment. But before the sharpshooter could even get a word in, Aries surprised them even more with her very simple answer.

"Yes we are honey, are you okay with that?" the Spirit replied with a warm smile while looking down at the little girl sitting in her lap.

"Yep, but only if you promise me something." she replied as her expression turned to a serious one, or at least as serious as she could make with such a cute face.

"Asuka! You can't say such things to her." stated Bisca in an aghast tone, clearly mortified that her daughter was up to something.

"It's fine Bisca, so what is it that I have to promise you darling?" said Aries as she continued to smile down at the little girl.

"That you'll protect him like my mama does for my papa." answered Asuka, causing most of the members listening in to let out some awws.

"Of course." she responded while bringing her in for a big hug.

"And that you two will also have a kid so we can become best friends." the little girl declared in the middle of their hug. This caused a few members of Fairy Tail to start choking on their drinks while a few of the others couldn't help but find it completely adorable.

"That's something me and Natsu will have to talk together about." she said as a slight blush started to dust the edges of her cheeks.

"But it's something that he wants." stated Asuka as a pout came over her face as she looked up at Aries.

"Asuka, don't start telling lies like that." scolded her mother as she got up to take her away from Aries before she made it even more awkward than it already was.

"It's not a lie, Uncle Natsu told me so after we played together." she declared while crossing her arms in front of her and defiantly looking up at her mother. "He said that he wished he could have his own family like we have. And it was after we pinky promised that we would never lie to each other."

"Asuka…" Bisca started to say until Aries spoke up.

"If that's the case then it's a promise Asuka." the Spirit said to everyone else's sheer and utter surprise as the two of them then proceeded to make it a pinky promise.

"Yea!" cheered the young cowgirl before hugging the pink haired Spirit with all her might.

"Looks like we're up next." chimed in Makarov, causing everyone to finally start paying attention to what was happening in the middle of the arena. This caused some of them to have confused expression wash over their faces as: Gajeel, Laxus, Mira, Juvia and Mystogan came out instead of the team they were all expecting. And they weren't the only ones confused by this, most of the crowd was wondering where Natsu was since he was the only thing the media seemed interested in talking about recently.

Unfortunately for Fairy Tail the crowd's confusion quickly switched to slight anger that then turned into them booing at the current Fairy Tail team. Shouting out things such as they cheated to even get into third place and that they didn't deserve to be there at all. This would have more than likely gotten to the mages of Fairy Tail if a certain part of the crowd wasn't cheering their hearts out for them at the moment, making the rest of the crowd not even matter.

It was during this time that the cheering members of Fairy Tail found out that they had an unexpected guest with them, Mavis Vermilion, the First Guild Master. She quickly explained to all of them that she was bored sitting around on Tenrou Island all by herself and decided to come and cheer them on, and that only people with their guild mark on them could see her.

"Why are you so shocked to see her Gramps?" asked Aries in a confused tone as she looked between Mavis and him.

"He told you to call me that didn't he?" Makarov growled out only for his tone to switch back to his normal one. "And you can see her?" he asked while pointing up at the smiling young blonde floating in front of them.

"Yes to both, and she's been here for a while now." she replied still sporting a perplexed expression.

"But that shouldn't be possible." he said while looking to the First for answers.

"She and Natsu are bound together by a bond so strong that she is also included in that group even if she doesn't have our mark just yet." explained Mavis as she gave him a knowing look.

"Well you see we were…" he started to explain only for Mavis to ignore him as she and Aries were the only ones to continue to cheer for the team that took first place in the preliminaries.

 **In the Arena:**

"Not really the reception I was expecting to get." stated Erza as they slowly made their way to the middle of the arena where the rest of the teams were gathered.

"I think it's great, we were so awesome they're left speechless." replied Natsu with his usual grin as he waved back to Mavis and his mate. That soon turned into the rest of their guild cheering them on after coming out of their slight shock of having two teams competing in the games.

"You know that's not why they're silent." said Lucy with a small smile gracing her lips as they continued on their way.

"I can't believe we all had to wear these get ups just to match you." mumbled Gray as he gestured to all of their new outfits that were mainly white with gold as the accent color.

"I think they're manly!" bellowed Elfman as he started to flex in the small coat that clearly didn't fit him.

"You say that about pretty much everything." he mumbled to himself since he knew it wasn't going to change how the Strauss acted in the slightest.

"Gray, I know for a fact that you have a few different white coats in your wardrobe so stop complaining just because Natsu now has one." said Erza in a commanding tone; that meant it was the end of him whining about their new uniforms.

"So there are two Fairy Tail teams competing this year, quite interesting." stated Jura as he and Lyon made their way over to them.

"There's another Fairy Tail team?" asked all of them except for Natsu.

"Did I forget to tell you guys about that? Sorry." chuckled out said dragon slayer as he started to rub the back of his head and grin at all of them glaring at them.

"Still the same old Fairy Tail." stated Lyon with a small grin sent their way; this of course caught the attention of his fellow childhood student as the two of them started their own heated little discussion. And he wasn't the only one to quickly splinter off from the group; Erza and Lucy were soon being smothered by the members of Blue Pegasus. This unfortunately meant that Erza had to deal with Ichiya as he kept calling her honey and trying to woo her.

"I had heard that all of you were in some sort of stasis for the last seven years, which seems to be true for the majority of you, well except for you that is." said Jura with an eyebrow raised as the only ones still standing there were him, Elfman and Natsu.

"It's a long story Jura, one that I'd be more than happy to fill you in on later." he replied while locking eyes with a certain blonde male from Sabertooth that had been staring him down since they entered the arena.

"I'm going to hold you to that, I'm just glad to finally see for myself that all of you are okay." responded the Wizard Saint before heading back to the rest of his team minus Lyon.

"You're so going down Salamander!" shouted out Gajeel as he and the rest of his team made their way towards them.

"Yea, Yea, just save it for the games." he replied in a dismissive tone as he side stepped him and the rest of Fairy Tail's second team and made his way towards Sabretooth's team. But before he could get even close to them Raven Tail decided to get in his way.

"One of Makarov's little brats thinks he's all that after his little stunt in the preliminaries does he?" asked the one standing in the center and in a complete suite of gold armor with a black cape on his back.

"I don't know who you are and I honestly don't care." replied Natsu as he tried to make his way past them but was stopped by the weird short one with violet colored skin. Causing the already fed up fire dragon slayer to become even more pissed off with them then he already was. Unfortunately that soon turned into disdain as the other odd ball of their group with blue skin stopped him once again. But it wasn't because of being stopped yet again that Natsu was on the verge of attacking them right then and there, no it was because he could smell the faint smell of Wendy on him and the small creature sitting on his shoulder.

"You'll soon realize that Fairy Tail is nothing when compared to us." the armored one said in a cocky tone before letting out a deep chuckle. A chuckle that was quickly cut short as an enormous amount of magic pressure descended on the entire arena, while at the same time it became extremely hot. With both of them combined together most of the contestants and spectators were finding it hard to breath, with the members of Fairy Tail being the only ones not affected by it.

"Is that so?" asked Natsu as he tilted his head sideways to look at the armored man who was the only one from his team still on his feet, and just barely if his trembling legs were any indication. "Well I think I should make something crystal clear for you and everyone else watching. If you mess with Fairy Tail then you'll have to deal with me, and I'll make sure to return whatever you did by tenfold." he finished saying now just a few centimeters away from him.

"Oh and Ivan, you're a fool to think I wouldn't recognize the scent of a Dreyar. So if you ever attack one of my friends like you did with Wendy last night I'll expose your little secret." he whispered into his ear in a deadly tone. "But of course that will only happen after I've hunted you down and beaten you so badly that even your own son and father won't be able to identify you." he finished in a slightly louder voice so two certain dragon slayers could definitely hear him.

"Natsu! That's Enough!" shouted Erza as she grabbed his shoulder and pulled him away from the cowering Raven Tail team. As soon as he was spun around the temperature dropped back down to normal and the overwhelming pressure was gone.

"What, did you think that was me Erza?" he asked her back with his usual grin and a little chuckle that quite frankly made him even more terrifying to the other contenders.

"Of course it was you Salamander." stated Gajeel as he shook his head at him, even though he clearly had a smirk spread across his lips since he overheard most of his little conversation with Ivan. But luckily he knew that letting the rest of their teams in on everything would only guarantee that they were kicked out, which they already might be after Natsu's little stunt just now.

"No kidding Ash for Brains, what other fire mage could possibly do all of this." declared Gray as he motioned to all of the sweaty contestants and spectators.

"Zancrow." was the pink heads quick reply before an armored gauntlet smacked the back side of his head rather harshly. This caused him to slowly turn and look the scarlet haired knight directly in the eyes, where he could see how shocked she was that he was still standing there as if she hadn't just hit him.

"We don't need your smart aleck remarks right now, especially after you just might have gotten us kicked out." she said while glaring him down, which unfortunately for her wasn't having any effect on him like it used to.

"Calm down Erza, if they were going to kick us out for that then they already would have done it." responded the pink haired dragon slayer as his signature grin once again came over his face. "Isn't that right?" he asked while turning to look up at the booth with the day's three announcers in it. All of which looked slightly disheveled and confused at how to respond to him since it really wasn't their job to make decisions like that.

"Considering that you haven't actually done anything other than letting out your magical pressure, I'd assume that you're still fine." answered former Councilman Yajima as the hints of a faint smile could barely be seen on the corners of his lips.

"Are you kidding me, that maniac just attacked me and the rest of my team!" shouted out the armored mage of Raven Tail in disgust.

"Actually Alexei, we all just witnessed the exact opposite." replied Chapati Lola in a rattled voice as he continued to mess with his tie that he slightly undid during Natsu's little outburst. "As my fellow announcer pointed out to you just moments ago, Mr. Dragneel never laid a finger on you and only stated that anyone who is foolish enough to make an enemy out of his guild will have to deal with him." he finished in a normal tone by the end of it.

"And man did he sure make an impression while doing it." chimed in Jenny Realight as she fanned her face and gave said dragon slayer a sly wink.

"Fine, but it should be obvious to everyone here that Fairy Tail having two teams competing gives them an unfair advantage." argued the violet skinned member of Raven Tail that went by Nullpudding.

"He does have a point there." replied Fiore's current top model as she brought one of her fingers up to her mouth and looked as if she was now in deep thought.

"Like hell he does!" shouted out Natsu, once again causing everyone's eyes to turn on him. "It doesn't matter if they're from the same guild or not because as soon as these games start I'll destroy anyone that stands in my way. Which I'm confident is the same mentality of the rest of my team and it's probably the same for Fairy Tail's B team as well."

"Who in the hell decided that we were the B team?" asked Gajeel with a snarl as he got right in front of Natsu.

"I did, and it also kind of makes sense since we came in first as well." he replied with a smug grin before ducking underneath a swipe at his head.

"You don't get to make those kinds of decisions Salamander." growled out his fellow dragon slayer as Laxus suddenly appeared in between the two of them so they were no longer in each other's faces.

"Easy there Gajeel, he's just trying to rile you up." stated Laxus in a calm tone as he locked eyes with his teammate. "And besides, just think of how satisfying it's going to be when we wipe that smug grin of his off his face." he finished as he turned to look at Natsu with a determined look.

"I've been dying to have a rematch with you Laxus where it's just the two of us." said the still grinning dragon slayer on the other team.

"I also wouldn't mind going up against you once again Erza, it'll be just like the good old days." chirped Mira as she gave her usual angelic smile, which to the entire crowd didn't seem to match what she just said.

"Are you sure you really want to let the entire country know that I'm your superior?" asked the scarlet haired mage as a red aura started to form around her. Something that was happening to most of the members on both teams, except for each of their colors matching their form of magic.

"Easy now Fairy Tail, save it for once the games actually start." said Jura as he slowly made his way in between the two teams now staring each other down.

"As you can see, your concerns won't really be a problem." announced Chapati, effectively getting everyone's attention back on him. "And even if they did decided to use this to their advantage there is nothing wrong with that since they haven't broken any of the rules." he explained as Yajima nodded his head in agreement.

"Aren't we supposed to announce the first event?" asked Jenny before quickly posing for a few photos.

"That we are my Dear." answered Yajima before he and Chapati went back and forth explaining all of the rules for the games overall. After which they then went on to explain the first event this year, known only as Hidden to all of them until each of the teams chose one participant.

 **In the booth of Fairy Tail Team A:**

"Natsu, you better have a good god damn reason for pulling a stunt like that and don't you ever tell me to calm down again." was the first thing Erza said to him in a shockingly calm voice as they stepped into their booth.

"Of course I do." he replied as he walked past her and headed to the railings so he could get a good view of the event Gray was about to compete in.

"Natsu…" she growled back at him.

"And what was it Natsu?" asked Lucy in a slightly timid voice since it was always risky to cut off Erza like she just did.

"Those bastards are responsible for what happened to Wendy and Carla last night." he answered just above a whisper that the other three almost missed due to the sounds of stones being crunched under extreme force. Stones that were unfortunately making up the railing of their booth and just happened to be where he came to a stop at.

"Those bastards." hissed out both of the women as they started to glare across at the Raven Tail team. That just happened to only be a few booths away from theirs but still close enough for them to see all of them smirking back at them right now.

"That's definitely not manly." declared Elfman as he too joined in on the stare down.

"How could you tell?" asked Erza as she looked over at the clearly still pissed off dragon slayer next to her.

"The bastard with that weird creature still had her scent on them." he answered through gritted teeth.

"Then you did a great job of holding yourself back." stated Lucy as she gave him a concerned look, knowing just how hard it must have been for him to not go ballistic on all of them as soon as he realized it was them. And to make it even worse, the bastards had the audacity to pretend like none of it happened and are just smirking at them right now.

"No I didn't." he spat back in disgust. "I'm confident that he purposely left her scent on himself to see how I would react."

"You probably did better than anyone else would have if they were in your place, definitely better than what I would have." stated Erza as she continued to watch the smirking members of Raven Tail, not taking her eyes off of them for even a second.

"I still messed up." was his simple reply.

"How so?" asked Elfman as he looked at his pink haired friend with a bewildered expression.

"That was the second time I let everyone see what I'm capable of, something you should really try to prevent when you don't know who you can trust." he said while finally letting up on his tight grip of the railing, letting the now crushed stones fall to the floor.

"Well at least now we shouldn't have to worry about them anymore." said Lucy in a cheery tone that petered off towards the end as he gave her a blank look.

"Outside of the games, yes… But I'm fairly certain that they'll still be coming after us whenever they can in these events and they won't be playing fair. That is something I can guarantee." he finished just as the First Event finally commenced.

"We should inform Master of this as soon as possible." stated Erza as she along with the rest of them intently watched the lacrima screens displaying all of the competitors.

"Aries has already informed him and he's passed it on to the rest of the guild." he replied before clicking his tongue as Nullpudding taking Gray out for the first time. Only for him to keep targeting Gray even when other contestants would have been easier for him to go after, and unfortunately for Fairy Tail Team A he was succeeding at it.

"Oh come on, he's not even going after anyone else!" shouted out Elfman in frustration.

"I had a feeling they'd do something like this." mumbled Natsu, causing the rest of his team to look at him expectantly. "They're trying to make us look bad, which if they succeed will pretty much mean the end for us and also prove everyone else that has looked down on our guild correct." he explained as a small smirk started to make its way across his lips.

"And what exactly about all of that makes you so happy?" inquired Erza as she gave him a stern look.

"Nothing, except for the fact that it's going to make it that much more satisfying when we utterly destroy Ivan and the rest of his guild." he said as he took a seat. "Also the fool has already made his first move and by doing so he's revealed to us his overall intentions, meaning he's already lost. As for why he's deciding to do it right now of all times is slightly confusing." he finished with a contemplative look washing over his face as he gazed up at the ceiling.

"No offense Natsu, but when did you start being smart?" asked Elfman before he realized what he said right to the dragon slayer's face.

"None taken Elfman, and I've always been this smart I just didn't really understand how most of the world thinks." he answered with a little chuckle at Elfman's shocked expression.

"But you do now?" asked Lucy while giving him a skeptical look.

"No, not really, but that's because each person is unique." he replied with a cheesy grin directed towards her. "Although, after training with the Spirit King I'd have to say I definitely have a better grasp of what drives the average person into doing what they do."

"So your training with him wasn't just combat focused." stated Erza with a small smile gracing her usually stoic one.

"Yeah, but most of that stuff we discussed during our spars since that seems to be the best time for me to learn something." he said before suddenly getting up and heading towards the exit.

"Aren't you going to wait until the end?" asked Lucy as she was torn between going after him and watching the event wrap up.

"Nah, it's obvious that we've got last place this round since Ice Princess let that little grape looking man into his head." he answered as he opened the door.

"And you're not going to be here to support Gray once he returns?" asked Erza in a deadly tone as she gave him a disapproving look.

"Do you really think Gray would want me of all people to see him like this?" he asked back while not even waiting for a reply from her. This caused the other two occupants of the booth to start backing away from the red head hesitantly as to not become the new focus of her wrath. But to the sheer disbelief of both of them, Erza actually had a faint smile on her face as she turned back to watching the end of Hidden.

"Are you okay Erza?" asked their Celestial mage hesitantly.

"Of course I am Lucy, those two would never admit it out loud but they are as close as any two people can be to being brothers that aren't actually related." she answered just before the time ran out and the contestants were sent back to the middle of the arena, where most of them then went back to their teams.

 **In one of the tunnels leading into the center of the arena:**

"Damnit!" cursed Gray as he slammed his fist against one of the walls, leaving a small crater in his wake.

"That was pretty pitiful." came an oh so familiar voice from the other end of the tunnel.

"What the hell are you doing here? Did you just come here to rub it in?" he asked while visibly shaking in rage.

"Nope, but you can't really blame me for getting in a few jabs when you made it so ridiculously easy." replied Natsu as he made his way towards his teammate. "I just wanted to remind you that each mistake is just another stepping stone on this journey we call life. Also that when a Fairy Tail mage gets beaten down… They pick themselves back up and come back stronger than anyone else could have ever predicted." he finished as Gray's head hung so he couldn't see his expression.

"Well that's all I had to say, so I'm going to go talk to Gramps now." stated Natsu as he turned around and went back the way he came.

"I already know all of that you Moron." mumbled Gray to himself as his hands and the rest of his body stopped trembling.

 **A few minutes later in a random storage room:**

"Hmm." hummed Makarov as he stroked his mustache in thought. When Aries initially informed him that his son was actually masquerading as one of the contestants known as Alexei, he almost informed the judges right then and there. The only thing that actually stopped him from doing so was the fact that Natsu didn't expose his son for some unknown reason.

"I can't figure it out either." stated Natsu as he hopped off the box he used to be sitting on just moments ago.

"I've got a pretty good idea what he's after." he replied in a solemn tone as he looked over at the pink haired boy, which if he was being honest with himself wasn't really a good way to describe the dragon slayer anymore.

"I'm guessing that you can't fill me in on what that might be if I'm reading your facial expression correctly." the dragon slayer said in a cheery tone as he started to dust off the bottom half of his coat.

"Correct, but it's not because of me not trusting you…" the elderly man started to explain.

"No worries Gramps, I've recently come to understand that some things are better off kept a secret. And the best way to make sure that it stays that way is to not needlessly go around telling others that don't need to know." pointed out Natsu as he grinned at the slightly taken aback guild Master.

"I like him." giggled Mavis as she floated down in between the two of them.

"Weren't you only here to watch and cheer on our guild?" asked Makarov as he looked up at the smiling spirit of their first guild Master.

"Yes, but that doesn't mean I can't help out when you're all in trouble." she replied while never losing her bright smile.

"Then what do you think we should do about Raven Tail?" asked Natsu as he leaned against the doorway of the cramped store room.

"Exactly what the two of you are currently thinking… Wait until they make another move, but this time we'll make sure that they will come to regret it." she answered as her smile got even bigger, making the two other men look at each other with slightly frightened expressions.

"And if that doesn't work then we can just expose him and that will be the end of it, for these games at least." stated Natsu while smiling at the other two. Only for his expression to then become quite grim all of a sudden.

"What's the matter Natsu?" inquired the other two as he without a word left the storage room and headed back to their booths at a hurried pace causing them to chase after him.

"Lucy is fighting one of them as we speak and until just a little bit ago looked as if she was going to win." he answered through clenched teeth. "Now she just seems to be letting the red haired one attack her while she isn't even trying to defend herself."

"Ivan!" growled out Makarov as he clenched his fists in rage. He was about to tell Natsu that he needs to remain calm, but was shocked to no longer see any signs of the pink haired mage.

 **In the arena:**

"Please don't, anything but that!" begged Lucy only for Flare's hair to once again cover her mouth.

"Didn't I tell you to remain quiet?!" replied Flare as she gave the blonde a deranged look while the flaming brand of Raven Tail edged closer to the blonde's Fairy Tail emblem.

'I'm sorry everyone.' thought Lucy as tears started to flood from her eyes. 'At least they'll both be fine.' she thought to herself as she spared one more quick glance at Asuka and Aries. Both of them looking at her with disbelieving eyes, neither of them having any idea that she was only letting this happen to her so they wouldn't be hurt.

The brand at this point was only just a centimeter away from her hand, so she closed her eyes in anticipation of the upcoming pain. But instead of feeling fire burning away at her right hand, she was shocked to find all of the hair that used to be confining her gone. When Lucy reopened her eyes she along with the rest of the arena didn't really know what they were watching.

The once proud and albeit crazy, Flare was now face first in the ground, which by itself would have been very confusing for everyone that had been watching their match so far. But to everyone's surprise she seemed to be being pulled by her own hair and drug across the arena like a rag doll, leaving small trenches in her wake. Seeing this took Lucy only just a second to have a good guess at who was responsible, and as she looked back to Fairy Tail's booth she was proven correct when another mop of pink hair could be seen amongst them.

"Thanks Natsu." she whispered to herself as she got back up from where she was dropped.

"This can't be happening." shouted out Flare in fear as she too turned her head to look up at the Fairy Tail booth. But unlike when Lucy looked up there and got a sense of warmth and protection, Flare on the other hand felt heat like nothing she had ever felt before and along with that heat she felt anger being directed towards her.

Anger that was clearly coming from the pink haired mage from before, who to her shock had her hair wrapped around his arm as if it was nothing. Her fear only grew as the two of them locked eyes and she would have sworn on her life that a menacing red dragon was standing behind the man. Fortunately or unfortunately for her, it really depends on the person you ask, she didn't get to dwell on this because what the man did next shocked her to her very core. He started to suck up and eat the fire that was gifted to her before she left her home village, fire that was supposed to rival that of a dragon's.

Flare couldn't hear what he said to her after devouring a good portion of her magic, but she didn't need to because his eyes said it all. If she tried another stunt like that again, then there was no one that could protect her from the pink haired monster glaring down at her in disgust. She was frozen in fear as he continued to glare at her that is until a shocked gasp from the clueless crowd reminded her that she was currently in a duel with blondie.

"What is this?" she asked in complete terror as the two Lucys finished their incantation and opened their eyes while looking directly at her. The next second stars started to appear around her as she was then overwhelmed by an impressive amount of magical power as more stars showed up. Now it was her turn to close her eyes and wait for an immense amount of pain to be sent her way.

"Wha…" asked Lucy before suddenly falling to the arena floor and barely being able to lift herself back up if she even wanted to. While at the same time her impressive spell vanished into thin air and left a trembling and confused Flare as the winner of the fight.

"Flare wins." came the lackluster voice of Chapati from the announcer's booth. The arena was silent for a few more seconds before the crowd started to murmur, which quickly turned into full on ridicule being sent at Lucy and Fairy Tail in general. It was too much for the Celestial mage as she tried to hold back her tears as she laid there in the middle of the arena in shame.

"Don't listen to them." said a voice that she would always recognize, causing her to look up and see Natsu standing over her with his hand held out to her. "You did great and would have won if they hadn't cheated yet again." he said while pulling her up to her feet and then promptly bringing her into a hug that she definitely needed.

As he hugged her his once warm expression turned into one of complete rage as he looked up at the crowd that until right then continued to trash talk Lucy and his guild. Needless to say it became deathly quiet as he slowly looked at all of them, seemingly able to zone in on each and every individual that said anything terrible. His gaze lingered on Sabertooth's and Raven Tail's booths longer than anyone else's, with it finally falling on the still trembling Flare just a few feet away from him and Lucy.

"You're lucky that you had nothing to do with this." he told her in a cold voice that sent a shiver down her spine as he picked Lucy up and carried her out of the arena.

"That was definitely an odd match to say the least." chimed in Yajima as he looked over at Raven Tail's booth skeptically.

"That it was, but still a very entertaining one to watch." said Chapati before moving onto the next fight and announcing who would be fighting.

 **In Fairy Tail Team A's booth:**

"I don't think I've ever seen him like that before." stated Mira in a hushed tone as she and the rest of her team watched Natsu carry Lucy out of there.

"You're telling me, it looked as if he was about to attack every single person that opened their mouth." said Cana in a shocked tone that was only reinforced by her not having a drink in hand at the moment.

"The only other time I've seen him make a face even remotely similar to that one was during the whole fighting festival incident." replied Laxus just so they could barely hear him, clearly still ashamed at his foolish actions from back then.

"I know what you mean, he gave me almost the same look back when I was still with Phantom Lord." agreed Gajeel while shaking his head to try and get rid of the memory. "I honestly feel sorry for whoever pushes him over the edge next."

"And what do you mean by that?" asked the eldest Strauss sibling while raising an eyebrow at the iron dragon slayer.

"Most of you probably haven't noticed this, but Salamander is even more protective of those he sees as his family than he was before." he started to explain as a slight smirk made its way across his lips. "Which just proves that my suspicions about those two were spot on gihi."

"That doesn't really help us understand." pointed out Cana before she poured herself a new mug of beer.

"It wasn't supposed to since it's a dragon slayer thing." he replied with a smug smirk sent both of the women's way. "All I'll say is that once a dragon or dragon slayer actually completes the mating ritual with their mate they will pretty much do anything to protect them and the rest of their nest." This caused the rest of them to sit there in silence as they pondered over what he just told them.

"So are we part of his nest?" asked Juvia as she looked over at her longtime friend.

"What do you think?" he asked her back while rolling his eyes and going back to watching the next match of the day.

 **End of Chapter**

 **Author's Notes:**

 **Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed it. So I'd like to now take the time to apologize for being absent for so long, and I could give all of you the reasons behind my absence. But I'm fairly certain that most of you won't really care so I won't. With that now all out of the way I'm happy to say that my updates should be coming out at more regular pace then what they have over the past few months. With my next updates most likely coming out for Thundering Inferno and Master Dragneel. So as always feel free to drop me a review or PM and I'll try to get back to you as soon as possible, which I will also hopefully be better at then what I have been over the last few months as well.**

 **Oh and feel free to check out my profile page for other information.**

 **Until the next Chapter**

 **Digem Out!**


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